


Every Halloween

by zavocado



Category: A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin, Game of Thrones (TV)
Genre: Couple costumes out the butt, Dany does, F/M, First Time Sex, Halloween, Halloween Jonerys, I'll let you decide, Jon is actually Jon Stark cause he's raised by his mama, Modern AU, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, The dragons are cats, appreciate the Jon booty, cute ass teenager Jonerys being cute, does R plus L equal J, some pegging in part 3, the Stark family is huge and alive
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-31
Updated: 2019-12-17
Packaged: 2021-01-15 16:09:06
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 29,153
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21256064
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/zavocado/pseuds/zavocado
Summary: Every Halloween they made a promise to try something new.





	1. First Halloween

**Author's Note:**

> Bloop bloop, kids, here's the first part of that Halloween fic I've been mentioning o.o
> 
> We've got seven parts, one for each year from age 16 to 23. So, enjoy some teenage Jonerys fluff while I get back to work!
> 
> Happy Halloween! :D

“Dany? Daenerys!”

Rhaegar tugged her phone out of her hands. On screen, her character crashed headlong into a fire pit and exploded. Dany squawked in protest.

“I was on level 67!”

“I’ve been hollering for 10 minutes.” Her older brother and guardian glared down at her, holding her phone out of reach. “Did you check around the garden?”

Dany huffed. “ _ Yes _ . Gods, I said I would.”

She hadn’t. 

After the last half-buried trap had almost snapped closed around her wrist, Dany had stopped searching the grounds for them. Trooping across their deceased father’s old plot of land wasn’t how she wanted to spend her evening. Nor digging through the soiled remains of the house he’d burrowed away in for the last decade of his life. Ever inch smelled of grime and rotten food. One room upstairs had reeked of piss and shit when they’d first arrived three months ago, but Rhaegar insisted on salvaging their family’s centuries-old colonial.

“Father left it to you in his will,” Rhaegar had reminded her their first night in Massachusetts. “This house becomes yours when you turn eighteen. All the history, the heritage, everything here is yours to sell or rebuild or pull down.”

But Dany hated it. She choked on all the dust and the fumes from the cleaning chemicals. They’d spent the entire summer scrubbing the walls and floors and  _ ceilings _ . One contractor after another had come and gone, checking this and that, handing her brother long lists of repairs and bills. Rhaegar loved this house; he’d grown up here when the colonial still sat on a dozen acres and had been well-maintained. Dany had seen pictures of it, of him and their mother posing out front, under an arched stone sign at the gate that announced “Dragonstone”. Little of that remained now. She’d not seen her father since she was small. Her brother and late mother had raised her in New York instead.

“You’re sure you got all of them?” Rhaegar grabbed a hand towel from the pile he’d set up on the dining table. He was covered in dirt and sweat. “I don’t want anyone getting hurt, Daenerys. Father set up booby traps all over the yard, probably in the treeline, too. Kids are going to be all over the place tonight.”

Dany scowled.

Halloween was today. Kids would be trick-or-treating, dressed up in exciting costumes and full of sugary candy. And she would be here, in this creaky, musty old house, alone. Nobody visited the old Targaryen place. The kids at her new high school still whispered about the crazy old man shut away here. Now that her father was dead, they insisted his ghost would stomp the grounds tonight. A few dares had even circulated to come here and see for themselves. Dany had told them off for it. Once they’d realized she lived there now—that she was mad old Aerys Targaryen’s  _ daughter _ —nobody had spoken to her since.

Everyone would be out having a great, fun Halloween. Normally, it was her favorite holiday. Until this year. Tonight, she would while away the hours with her sullen brother and the remnants of their father’s mental illness ravaged house.

“Go shut the gate.” Rhaegar finished wiping the sweat and dirt from his arms. “I’ll start dinner.”

Dany snatched her phone back and headed out into the dusk. The walk down the front drive took several minutes, sidestepping potholes and a few stubborn puddles from yesterday’s thunderstorms. She pushed the metal gates shut on the drive and locked them with the padlock. Through the bars, she could see the town at the bottom of the road. Pricks of light flickered on. A few kids were already running about, dressed as monsters and wizards and their favorite characters. 

Dinner was a watery soup with stringy noodles and chewy chunks of beef. Dany stirred it with disinterest, dropping bites of beef under the table for her three cats, but even they wouldn’t touch it. Rhaegar grimaced and ate his share. Her brother tried his best, but they were both terrible cooks. Neither of them could match their mother’s cooking.

“Any plans tonight?”

“No.”

Rhaegar slurped another spoonful, eyeing her carefully. “Dany, I know you’d rather be back in New York, but it’s important that we’re here. Just one year, okay? That’s what I promised and I meant it. If you still want to leave next summer, we will, but that doesn’t mean you can’t make friends.”

_ Nobody wants to be friends with crazy old Aerys Targaryen’s daughter _ .

“You’re sixteen. It’s Halloween. You ought to be—”

Whatever her brother was going to suggest was cut short by a scream. Not a scary Halloween scream. Not a frightened kid on the street. This one came from the backyard and clearly belonged to a teenage boy, his voice high and cracking, laced with pain.

The cats fled from the room in a panic as Rhaegar bolted from his chair. He flipped the lightswitch for the back porch. Dany saw a few human-shaped shadows take off running for the far side of the yard. The boy screamed in pain again.

“Stay here.”

Her brother grabbed their trusty security system—a clunky wooden bat—and headed into the yard. Dany watched her watery soup still around her spoon. Again, the boy’s strangled yell reached her through the cracked door.  _ Not from the garden, _ Dany tried to convince herself.  _ Please not from the garden. _

She followed her brother out into the night. 

The yard was a stark pale sheet beyond the porchlight’s halo. Dany dug her phone from her pocket, flicked the flashlight on, and stared around. Nothing moved. Out in the yard, she could hear the distant shouts of teenage boys, their panicked voices fading toward the woods. Another howl of pain rent the still night air. By the garden.

Dany swallowed a dagger of unease and headed toward the noises. Her brother’s worried voice grew louder with each step.

“Easy, let me get the trap off.”

A boy whimpered. The two appeared a second later in the light of Dany’s phone. Rhaegar knelt beside a teenage boy who was clothed in black. She didn’t recognize him until his hood slipped off to reveal a thick head of dark curls.

Jon, one of the Stark boys. The one in her year that kept staring at her in their trigonometry class and at lunch while his rowdy friends put on a show. Every time she caught him, he always turned his grumpy frown away.

“Dany, shine it over here. His foot’s caught in a trap.” 

Guilt hit Dany hard as she positioned the light over Jon’s leg. One of her father’s stupid traps was snapped tight right above the top of Jon’s sneaker. It didn’t have teeth like some of the bear traps they’d found, but it shut the same way, slamming tight around its prey with the force of a gunshot.

Jon whimpered again, his face screwed up in agony.

“Please, I’m sorry. We were—it was just a joke—”

Rhaegar wedged his jacket in around Jon’s ankle to soften the pressure, then worked on the trap’s springs. After a few tense minutes, the trap fell open. Jon shuddered, wiped at his eyes. Her brother went right into doctor mode, shoving Jon’s jeans up his calf to examine him. Already, Dany could see it was broken. Jon’s ankle was swelling, a huge bruise blooming above the knot of bone. His foot was twisted near sideways.

“It’s broken. Come on. Let’s get you into the house.”

Before Jon could protest, Rhaegar scooped him up and carried him inside. 

They set him up on a couch in the front sitting room. Rhaegar went to work, getting Jon’s boot and sock off. He sent Dany for water and aspirin. When she returned, Jon’s broken ankle was propped up on several decorative pillows. 

“Here.” She handed him the pills and water, but Jon only looked at them. His eyes watered with pain. “It’s aspirin, doofus.”

Jon still hesitated. He wouldn’t meet her eyes, his face as red as the trap’s marks on his ankle. “I’m fine.”

Helpfully, Rhaegar pressed on Jon’s swelling foot. He yelped in pain, his entire body jerking. 

“Take them. Doctor’s orders.” Rhaegar watched Jon until he did as instructed. “Good. Now, where do you live?”

Jon faked muteness.

“Your ankle is broken, and your friends ran off,” Rhaegar reminded Jon. “You need a hospital and x-rays. Medicine for the pain. Give me a phone number, at least.”

When Jon stayed silent, Dany spoke up.

“He’s one of the Stark boys. Jon Stark.”

They both turned to her, Rhaegar suddenly worried and Jon in surprise. The Starks were one of the oldest and most prominent families in the area, still living on a grand estate at the northern edge of town. Jon’s injury on their property, even as a trespasser, could cause a lot of problems.

“You live up at Winterfell? You’re one of Ned Stark’s boys?”

Jon still didn’t answer. Rhaegar dug up the old phone book from the cabinet in the corner. Of everything in the house, it was one of the few items left in pristine condition. He flipped through it as Jon bit his lip, watching.

“Here it is. Eddard Stark. Dany, let me use your phone.”

She handed it over, and Rhaegar began to dial.

“Don’t!”

Jon shifted on the couch, tried to sit up more. He winced as his foot dragged on the pillows.

“I don’t live at Winterfell. Not anymore. Ned’s my uncle. My mom and I live in town now.”

Rhaegar offered him the phone and Jon put in a number. As her brother wandered into the kitchen, phone pressed to his ear, Dany followed. She dug an ice tray out of the freezer and filled a sandwich bag. Jon’s mother must have answered.

“Yes, a broken ankle. He and his friends were… well, trespassing in my backyard. No, I didn’t set the traps. My father was… a bit senile before he passed.” He glanced at Dany with a flicker of guilt. “Yes, the old Targaryen house. Okay, great. Bye.”

Rhaegar handed her phone back, then pulled his coat on. “Jon’s mother is on her way. I’m going to meet her at the gate. She’s not happy.”

With nothing else to do, Dany returned to the sitting room. Jon took one look at her and ducked his head, his cheeks turning pink. Bemused, Dany eased the makeshift ice pack onto his ankle. He jolted at the cold.

“It’ll help the swelling.”

Jon gave a squeaky grunt that Dany equated with gratitude. She examined him as he fiddled with his sleeves, his long face and messy dark curls. He still wouldn’t meet her gaze. Like everyone else at school, he must think her a freak, a lunatic just waiting to hatch. 

“Your mom’s on her way over,” Dany said, hugging herself in the awkward silence. 

Jon groaned and let his head fall back on the arm of the couch. “I’m gonna need another ice pack then.”

“What?”

“She’s likely to break my neck, too.”

Dany laughed before she could stop herself. Jon glanced at her, and finally, their eyes met. He was still blushing, but his eyes were soft; a gentle stormy gray that warmed Dany to her toes. Her own cheeks were suddenly hot, but the moment was broken. The front door slammed open, ricocheting off the wall.

“Jonathan Rickard Stark, I ought to box your ears and turn your intestines into stew.”

A witch stalked through the doorway. Dany blinked once. Then twice. It took a moment for her to register the makeup and costume weren’t real. Both were incredibly realistic, from the mottle-green skin to the prosthetic nose and hairy warts. Jon’s mother had his same dark curls, but her eyes blazed like sparks in a fire.

“What were you  _ thinking? _ ” She caught sight of Jon’s ballooning ankle, and her fury faltered. “Oh, Jon…”

Dany hurried away from the couch as Jon’s mother came over to him. Rhaegar joined Dany in the doorway to the hall, looking out of breath like he’d run all the way from the gate. His left cheek was red. He rubbed it and winced, his eyes fixed on Jon’s mother.

“Mom, I’m fine. Stop. I’ve broken bones before, gods.”

His mother gave him another tender examination, then pommeled his shoulder with her fist.

“You are grounded until six weeks  _ after _ your ankle heals. No, don’t even try it. Who was with you?”

“Nobody.”

“Oh, really? Dr. Targaryen says he saw other boys. Boys who ran off and abandoned you, I might add.” She gave his shoulder a shake. “Who was with you?”

Jon still didn’t answer. Dany admired his unwavering loyalty to his friends, even if she thought it was stupid, too. They’d fled as soon as the porch light turned on, left Jon howling in agony on the ground.

“It was Robb, wasn’t it? And that worthless Theon Greyjoy he’s so fond of, I bet.” Jon’s silence seemed answer enough for her. “Oh, just wait until Ned gets a hold of him. Until  _ I _ get a hold of them.”

“Mom, please, don’t. They didn’t—I was the only one dumb enough to get caught.”

Jon’s mother stared at him, a strange flickering of emotions passing over her face. Anger, pride, disbelief.

“I don’t care how much you love your cousin, Jon. He and that  _ brat _ left you screaming with a trap around your leg. They’ll be punished for this, too.”

“Um, Mrs. Stark?”

“Lyanna is fine.” 

She turned to Rhaegar, who cleared his throat, and rubbed his cheek again. “Perhaps we can talk, in the kitchen?”

Lyanna glanced at Dany, then back at her son. She tucked a stray curl behind his ear, then pecked him on the forehead. Rhaegar and her disappeared into the kitchen. Her brother shut the door behind them.

From the couch, Jon sighed, then gasped in pain. Dany reclaimed her perch on the coffee table, pressed the ice pack to his ankle. And there was Jon’s stare again, soft and mesmerized as he watched her. Dany’s skin itched under his unwavering eyes, and finally she snapped.

“What? Do you think if you stare long enough you’ll get to watch me become the next mad Targaryen?”

Jon startled, his face flushing. He ducked his eyes, ashamed.

“No, I’m sorry.”

“Well, I’m not mad and I’m not going to  _ go _ mad,” Dany continued, her temper charging on. “So you can tell your stupid friends and all those idiots at school, that I’m—”

“I don’t think you’re mad.”

Dany huffed in disbelief, pushed a bit too hard on the ice pack. Jon grimaced and took it from her hand. Their fingers caught for a second, left a pleasant shiver that ran down Dany’s spine.

“I don’t.” Jon’s blush deepened. He stared hard at his swollen foot, swallowed and said, “If I upset you or scared you, I’m sorry. I was just…”

“What?”

“I was trying to think of how to… to ask you out.”

Dany was certain her own blush had turned so dark she was purple. They both avoided each other’s eyes for several seconds. From the kitchen, the dull, indistinct sound of voices filled the quiet. Eventually, Jon cleared his throat.

“Sorry. I’m not good at this stuff. Robb and Theon are all smooth talk and sauve, but I’m not good with words, even if I’m not nervous or…” Jon waved his hand in exasperation. “But I like you. A lot. So, um, yeah.”

He was entirely ineloquent, his eyes darting all around the room as he bit his lip. She’d briefly dated a boy back in New York, but he’d been a complete tool with his blue hair and nose ring. Dany gave him a long examination, from his shaggy dark curls to his grumpy little frown. He  _ was _ rather cute.

“So what would we do on this date?”

“We—I thought maybe bowling and dinner.” Jon’s smile was tentative, but his entire face lit up as he spoke. “Not a movie. You can’t talk there. Or maybe the haunted mini golf they’ve got out on the old ranch before it closes for the season.”

“That’ll be hard with a broken ankle.”

Jon wilted then, his confidence whooshing out of him like a leaking balloon. “Right, yeah, I guess that’s dumb.”

“No, it sounds like fun,” Dany said. She tucked her hair behind her ear and thought. “Perhaps something else first, until you can walk. There’s a… well, a Dungeon and Dragons event downtown this weekend. I was thinking of going.”

Her nerdiness was in full view, the words leaving her before she could think about their impact. 

“Oh, I… can’t.” Her embarrassment must have shown on her face, because Jon was quick to continue. “No, it’s not that I don’t  _ want _ to, but it’s… well, my birthday’s Sunday.”

“You’re also grounded well into the future.”

Lyanna and Rhaegar had returned, though neither of them looked pleased with the end of their conversation. Jon’s mother glanced from him to Dany, then back.

Jon cursed under his breath, but Lyanna didn’t pause.

“Don’t you mutter at me, young man. You broke the rules and an ankle, you aren’t going anywhere except home and school.” She cast Dany another look. “However, if your… friend would like to stop by for your birthday, I will allow it.”

“Yeah?” Despite his foot, Jon grinned. He almost tumbled off the couch in his excitement. “Would you—I mean, do you want… it’s not a big party or anything. You don’t need to get me a present either.”

“I’d love to go.”

“Really?” He seemed so surprised by her words.

“Really.”

His smile lit up his whole face. It was the first time she could ever recall seeing him looking so happy. At school, he was always grumpy and sleepy looking, and tonight he’d been miserable. But his smile then made her heart twange like a plucked guitar string. 

Jon really was very cute.

Rhaegar helped him up, limping and hopping toward the unfamiliar car parked in front of the door. Dany handed him the ice pack once he was in the passenger seat.

“So where is this party?”

“At Winterfell,” Jon said, and he beamed again despite the obvious pain he was in. “It’s a bit of a family thing we do, but friends are always allowed. You really want to come?”

“Sure, I always try to do something new every Halloween,” she confessed, glancing back at her brother and Jon’s mother having one final conversation. “My… my mom and I always tried something new. I guess the party doesn’t count though, since it’s not tonight.”

“Oh.” Jon’s smile faltered like he wanted to ask more, but instead he said, “Well, have you ever rescued a stupid boy from an animal trap?”

Dany laughed. “No, never rescued a stupid boy before.”

“That can be your new thing this year then,” he offered as Lyanna climbed into the driver’s seat. 

“I didn’t though, not really,” Dany said as she helped him shut the door. “I rescued a stupid and  _ cute _ boy.”

She shut the door before he could respond, blushing furiously. The car pulled away down the driveway, Rhaegar following on foot to lock the gate again. Dany rushed back into the house, her face far too warm for late October. When Rhaegar returned, he was both exasperated and annoyed.

“I can’t believe she hit me and  _ you _ got a date from that mess.”

“It’s not a date.”

Her brother gave her a look that said quite clearly that he didn’t buy that for a minute.

* * *

By Sunday, Dany was regretting her rash decision to accept Jon’s invitation. While Rhaegar had grumbled all week long about “that willful Lyanna Stark”, Dany’s nerves turned to jelly every time she pictured Jon. He didn’t return to school after Halloween, his empty desk like a maelstrom trying to pull her eyes down its depths. His cousin and friends, however, spent far more time than usual glancing her way. Every time Dany looked up, in class or at lunch or in the hall at her locker, a pair of gangly boys were watching her, whispering amongst themselves.

“They’re just stupid boys,” Missy told her over video chat. “One flip of your hair and they’ll have to heave their jaws off the ground.”

Dany rolled her eyes as she continued to riffle through her closet. “I told you, it’s not like the boys in New York. Not here. Everyone here just thinks of me as crazy old man Targaryen’s daughter.”

“Your new boo doesn’t.”

Her face burned. “Jon is  _ not _ my boo, Missandei.”

“But he wants to be,” she needled, grinning and laughing when Dany ducked her head around the closet door to glower at her. “What? You turn heads, Dany, don’t be afraid to use that, girl. Maybe he’ll join our Skype D&D campaigns.”

Dany made a frustrated noise and returned to her closet. She tugged down a summery dress patterned in turquoise and violet waves. When she held it over herself for Missy’s opinion her friend only cackled.

“ _ You like him! _ ”

“I do not—Drogon, stop!”

Her largest cat ignored her as he continued to bat at the cup of water on her desk. She hurried over and took it away.

“That’s a bad boy,” she scolded, but all he did was watch her with his reproachful amber eyes and flick his tail. “And I  _ don’t _ like him. Not like that.”

Missy snorted. “Sure, you’re only considering all your prettiest dresses and skirts that bring out your big violet eyes because you’re hoping to go unnoticed. Girl,  _ puh-lease _ .”

“It’s a  _ party _ ,” Dany insisted, but her face burned like she was pressing her cheeks to the sun. “I want to look nice, that’s all.”

Missandei made a noise of agreement that said quite clearly that she didn’t believe Daenerys at all.

“Go with that one,” Missy said when Dany held the summery dress up again. “It’ll be good for dancing… and any frisky, wandering hands.”

Dany’s glare was as hot as her face. “Grey has been a horrible influence on you.”

Missy only laughed at that, wished her luck and left her to dress with Drogon yowling at the glass of water she’d moved out of his reach. By four o’clock, her dress was free of cat hair, her silver-gold locks were styled into a simple braid, and she’d added a soft gray sweater to her outfit to fight off the Massachusetts cold.

Rhaegar drove her the short trip up to Winterfell’s gated driveway. 

“You sure they’re having it here?” he asked, glancing at the lack of decorations and balloons and general signs of a party. “Jon said he lived somewhere else with his mom.”

“It’s here. Thanks.”

She smiled at Rhaegar’s melancholy and climbed out, trying to act more confident than she felt. Had Jon lied? Despite the pain of his broken foot, Jon had seemed too genuine and excited for this to be some bizarre, elaborate prank. But the sight of the bland, stone driveway unnerved her. No music or people in sight. Dany squared her shoulders and went to knock on the door.

At once, an unfamiliar man answered. He might have been Jon thirty years from now if she ignored the Steven Tyler vibe and outfit. His dark hair and gray eyes were much the same, his face aged but still remarkably handsome. If she hadn’t already met Jon’s mother and known he was her very image, Dany would have guessed this man to be his taller and broader father. 

“Hi, I’m Dany,” she greeted, putting on her most winning smile as the man scrutinized her. “Jon invited me for his party today.”

“Ah, the crush.” He squinted at her much like Jon did when his eyes crinkled while he laughed, then hoisted a mug from somewhere behind the door. “Cheers, darling. He’s in the back, brooding over his cast.”

Then he chugged half of his drink and wandered into the house, leaving her mesmerized in the open doorway. From somewhere inside and out of sight, a woman’s voice called out.

“Who is it, Brandon?”

Just as Dany took a tentative step inside, Lyanna Stark appeared. Today, she was in a simple sweater and jeans, her witch outfit and make up little more than a memory.

“Oh, Dany, hi.” She waved her in, scowling over her shoulder as the same man danced past them down the hall. “Ignore my brother, he’s a scoundrel.”

“Don’t hate my beauty, Lya!”

“That isn’t beauty,” Lyanna snapped as she shut the front door. “It’s the price of continuous alcohol consumption mixed with a Steven Tyler fetish.”

Brandon flipped her off, then disappeared into another room. Dany hitched up her nervous smile, but Lyanna seemed to sense her unease.

“My brother is harmless, just an idiot,” she told her. “Come on, the kids are out back at the firepit.”

Lyanna led her down several hallways, past an opening into an expansive kitchen that was packed with adults who almost all had Jon’s coloring. Nerves pooled in Dany’s belly as she hurried past. If she’d known the entire Stark family would be present, Dany doubted she would have agreed to come. 

They passed into a robust living room with a sectional couch big enough to fit a dozen people, and then through a set of French doors onto the biggest back deck Dany had ever seen. Lyanna grinned sheepishly as Dany’s jaw dropped.

“Yeah, it’s a sight first time you see it.”

She felt like she was back in upstate Washington where Rhaegar had taken her on a business trip two years ago. Every tree touched the overcast sky. Pines and sentinels and oaks all clambered for the best sunlight, crowded together to form a vibrant wooded yard. Autumn leaves scattered like bursts of flame. From the deck, Dany could just make out a leaf-strewn path winding away into the wood.

“We’ve got an old heart tree, too,” Lyanna said as she headed down the stairs to the yard. “A weirwood,” she added at Dany’s befuddled look. “I’m sure if you ask Jon, he’ll be happy to hobble his grumpy butt back there for you.”

Something about Lyanna’s grin made Dany blush. They crossed the yard to a stone-rimmed firepit where a group of about fifteen teenagers and kids were hanging out. Most of the teenage boys were crowded around the far side, hunched over something.

“Jon, Dany’s here to see you!”

The crowd of boys split at Lyanna’s voice, scratching their necks and trying not to look guilty. In between them all, resting on a lounge chair with his leg propped up, was Jon. His foot was in a thick cast almost to his knee. Even from across the firepit, Dany could see what the boys had been doing.

“Jon, we’ll do cake and presents— _ did you let them draw that?” _

On the outside of his cast, someone had done an exaggerated doodle of a penis. Lyanna was beside herself.

“Give me every Sharpie and marker,” she barked at the boys. “Right now. And you,” she added to a boy Dany recognized as Robb Stark, “go fetch some white-out to cover that up.”

“But I didn’t—”

“Right now, Robb.”

He grumbled and muttered, but did as his aunt said. Dany stepped aside to let him pass as Lyanna snatched up every marker in sight. Then she hounded one of the boys who’s attempts to look innocent only made him appear guiltier.

“Hand it over, Grenn.  _ All _ of them. Or you will strip right here and now until I’m convinced you’ve got no more.”

His face crinkled miserably as he pulled a Sharpie from his pocket, another from his sock, and a third from the lining of his jacket.

Lyanna glared at the remaining boys, then at her son.

“I’ll ground you for another two weeks if you let them do it again.” Then she turned to Dany, who couldn’t help but take a step away. “Dany, I hope you’re a better influence on my son than his cousin has been. Have fun, dear.”

She smiled and left Dany alone amongst the Stark children and Jon’s friends. Her nerves writhed in her belly once more as she scanned each face. The kids were mostly curious. Almost every one of them had Robb’s auburn hair. The teenage boys she recognized from school, though they’d never been friendly to her.

Jon beamed and raised his hand toward her.

“Dany, you made it!”

The boys scattered when she approached, and Jon rolled his eyes.

“I told them you’re wonderful, but I think that just scared them more,” he whispered as she took Robb’s vacated chair beside Jon. “Thanks for coming.  _ Really _ . I thought maybe…” Jon shrugged and ducked his head. “I know you’ve got better things to do on the weekend than come here.”

“No, I… I wanted to see you.”

She turned her eyes away when he looked back, horrified to feel her blush from Halloween returning. One of the children, however, was a ready distraction. A younger girl stepped right up to her. Like Jon and his mother and uncle, she had dark hair and gray eyes.

“Are you Jon’s  _ girlfriend _ ?”

Jon yelped as Dany’s blush deepened.

“Arya, she isn’t—we’re only—clear off.”

The girl—Arya—grinned and stuck her tongue out at them.

“Well, is she?”

“No.”

“But he wants you to be,” Arya told Dany bluntly. She turned back to Jon. “Don’t you, Jon?”

“I—that isn’t—”

His face was as red as hers felt. Arya cuffed him on the head and headed back over to the other kids gathered around the firepit toasting marshmallows. Dany twisted her hands on the folds of her dress. A cold wind swept the yard, made the firepit gutter.

“Block it,” Arya commanded of the teenage boys. “You’re big enough to make a wall.”

One of the boys, Pyp, purposefully stepped away, his anxious eyes darting to Dany. Stepping closer to the fire meant being closer to her.

“Come on,” Jon muttered. He picked a pair of crutches up from the ground and hoisted himself to his good foot. “Let’s get away from these idiots for a bit.”

Dany stood, too, shivering as she tightened her sweater around herself. One of Jon’s crutches clattered to the chair as he pulled his coat off.

“Here,” he said, offering it to her as Arya whistled behind them and one of the auburn-haired boy’s began singing a childish song about them kissing in a tree. 

“Won’t you get cold?” 

Jon shrugged. “Not once I’m moving with these.” He gestured to his crutches. “A lot more of a workout than you think. Besides, I’ve got three layers on.”

To prove his point, Jon lifted the hem of his sweater to reveal a black thermal and then an undershirt beneath that.

“Strip-tease already, is it?”

Robb had returned, and much to Dany’s dismay, Theon Greyjoy was right behind him. He leered at Jon, but Jon was already turning away to the deck.

“Come on, I’ll introduce you to everyone mature instead of this lot.”

Dany hurried to his side, doing her best to ignore the stares of the other teens. She and Jon were on the third step when the French doors slammed open and Brandon appeared, a drink in one hand and a microphone in the other.

“Karaoke!”

“Oh, god, please no.” Jon backed up and almost fell, but his uncle snatched the front of his sweater and hoisted him up the stairs, crutches and all. “Put me  _ down _ , Uncle Brandon!”

The microphone screeched as it hit the deck. But Brandon stopped when whatever was in his mug sloshed over the rim.

“Watch it, Jonny boy!”

Jon wriggled away as more adults stepped outside, some amused, some resigned. Another man with Jon’s coloring but sharper features rolled a karaoke music outside.

“Can we,  _ please _ , not—”

“Lya! Lya, where’s my favorite duet partner?”

Jon’s mom appeared, her cheeks flushed a not-so-sober pink. Before Jon could protest further, his mother and uncle had grabbed a pair of microphones and selected a song they seemed to know well. Dany peered around Jon as the other kids and teenagers joined her at the bottom of the stairs.

Robb helped Jon hobble down the steps as the music started. “Do they have to sing this damn song every time we get together?”

“Only when they’re drinking,” Jon grunted. His face was as ruby as the leaves on the ground. “Dany, I’m so s—”

_ “I made it through the wilderness.” _

Dany stilled as the first verse washed over the gathering. Most of the adults were rolling their eyes, but Jon looked mortified. Robb gave him a sympathetic pat. On the deck-turned-stage, Lyanna and Brandon began hopping around.

Jon winced and turned away. “Just plug your ears or something.”

Dany frowned. “But I know this song. It’s a  _ good _ —”

A roar of guitars revved up on the soundtrack, shifting from the familiar pop beat to what Dany could only describe as a metal version of the song. She stared as the pair of siblings began headbanging and bellowing:

_ “Like a virgin! Touched for the very first tiiiiiiiiiiiime!” _

Uncle Brandon chose that moment to break from the lyrics and point out Jon.

“This one’s dedicated to you, Jonny!”

Jon pulled the collar of his sweater up over his face. Dany tried to smile reassuringly, but his forehead only turned redder. Robb nudged him toward the woods.

“Go on, I’ll deal with this lot, if you want to…”

His blue eyes shifted to Dany. Jon didn’t seem to need any further reason. 

“Come on, Dany, I’ll show you the heart tree.”

Despite his crutches, Jon proved to be quick across the yard. Dany hurried to keep up with him, pulling his coat on as she went. Once they had passed the tree line, Jon slowed, grimacing and adjusting his left crutch.

“Sorry about them,” he said. “They do that damn song every time they drink together. I must have been delirious when I invited you the other night.”

“You didn’t want to invite me?”

Her heart fell so fast she was surprised its shattered edges didn’t stab through her stomach. Jon paused as she stopped walking, hobbling in a little circle to face her.

“Oh, no! I didn’t mean—I only meant my family is a lot at once.” Jon tried to rub the back of his neck, but his crutch tumbled to the ground. “Damnit! Sorry,” he added, wobbling on his one good leg and remaining crutch. Another rousing chorus of ‘Like A Virgin’ echoed from the deck. “I absolutely did want to invite you. I just meant it’s a lot to ask of you, because of my family.”

Her heart lifted its head hopefully at his words. “You really mean it?”

“Aye, I do.” He sounded so earnest that Dany’s heart settled back in her chest. “And you really wanted to come?”

“Yes.” Dany smiled. “And I don’t mind all of that. I wish my family was bigger like yours.”

She scooped up his crutch and handed it to him. Jon fumbled it back under his arm, his face pink. From the cold or embarrassment, Dany couldn’t say. Without looking at each other, they both spoke the same words at the same time.

“Thanks.”

They laughed together. He gave her a bashful smile and nodded toward the trail heading further into the trees.

“You ever seen a heart tree before?”

“No,” Dany admitted. “Your mother said it’s another name for a weirwood, but I’m not entirely sure what that is either.”

Jon nodded, swinging along at her side. She stared at his arm as they walked, tried to find a way to hook hers through it, but it was impossible with his crutches.

“It’s an ancient tree, almost extinct,” Jon explained. “Big white one, scarlet leaves. This whole grove is protected because it’s here. My family used to worship them as gods. Well, part of their gods, a long, long time ago.”

“How can a tree be a god?”

“How can some bodiless entity in the sky?”

“Fair point,” Dany conceded. She zipped Jon’s coat up as another cold wind wound its way through the trees. It was far too long and bulky for her, but the piney scent of him on the fabric tickled her insides. “My family’s never been particularly religious. I think my brother’s ex-wife did the church on Sunday thing, but he never has.”

“My mom never has either,” Jon said. “None of us do. Was that your brother the other night? The one who helped me?”

Dany nodded, her eyes falling to her feet crunching through the fiery leaves on the path.

“I live with him now,” she said.

“Right.” Jon bit his lip, glanced at her, then dived in. “You said you used to do something new with your mom. On Halloween. Past tense.”

They walked a dozen paces before Dany could find her voice. “She died a few years ago. Breast cancer.”

“Oh, that’s…”

“Yeah.” Dany hunched her shoulders to hide deeper in Jon’s coat. “It was a long time coming, a long battle.”

“And then your dad was…” Jon trailed off awkwardly. “He passed over the summer. I remember seeing the ambulance at the house.”

Dany didn’t respond. She walked a bit faster, a few steps ahead of Jon’s steady swinging.

“Were you close? With your dad, I mean. I don’t remember ever seeing you around town or at school, and I…”

“What?”

His cheeks turned red. “I’m pretty sure I would have noticed you.”

_ Gods, Missy is never going to let me hear the end of this _ .

His feelings were quite apparent, from his bright eyes to his bashful smile. Dany’s stomach flipped a few times when he looked at her. A stray dark curl hung in his eyes.

“No, my parents divorced when I was a baby. I grew up with my mom and my brothers and Rhaegar’s kids.”

“Are they both a lot older than us?”

“Rhaegar is, but Viserys is only twenty-four. Rhaegar’s kids are both in college now.” She gave him a curious look. “And that girl that was pestering you back at the firepit, that was your sister?” 

“Cousin,” Jon corrected. “Most people think she’s my little sister, though, as much as she looks like me and Mom. But it’s just me. My mom only had me.”

“Your parents didn’t want more?”

Jon gave an uncomfortable shrug. “Don’t have a dad. My mom used a sperm bank to get pregnant. Said she didn’t want to deal with a spouse, just a baby.”

“Oh.” 

They passed through a clearing of little steaming pools. The pines and sentinels fell away then, bowing to the enormous tree in the center. As Jon had said its bark was snowy white, its leaves a flaming scarlet. A giant face was carved into the trunk so that it looked as if it were screaming and weeping sticky sap.

Jon grinned. “It’s a sight the first time you see it.”

Dany gazed up at it in awe, too surprised to tease him for echoing his mother’s words.

“It’s beautiful.”

“Yeah, suppose it is.”

When she looked away, however, Jon’s eyes were locked on her. His cheeks were pink from the cold and exertion. She took a step closer.

“Growing up, Nana always told us you can’t lie in front of a heart tree,” Jon told her. “That it’ll know and curse you for it. My cousin Sansa lied here once and then she broke her arm and two fingers.”

Dany glanced at his cast. “What’d you lie about then?”

“What? Oh. No, I didn’t—” Jon faltered, then laughed, his breath forming a little cloud of fog between them. “Actually, I kind of did. I was here with Mom the day before Halloween and she asked what I was gonna do that night. I sort of avoided answering, and then…”

He waved his foot about and lost his balance. Dany hurried to catch him by the arm, but his crutches got in the way. They both tumbled to the leaf-strewn path. His crutch dug into her ribs as she landed beside him in a pile of leaves.

“Sorry,  _ sorry _ , damnit, I’m such a klutz.” Jon frowned as he helped her sit up. Leaves clung to his curls. “It’s these stupid legs. They just… they got so  _ long _ out of nowhere and—”

Dany leaned in and kissed him on the cheek. Jon fell silent at once, his eyes wide.

“I like your long legs.” Dany sat beside him as Jon gapped at absolutely nothing. “See? They’re much longer than mine.”

She wiggled her feet beside his calves, but even then Jon didn’t speak. When she looked over, his mouth was still hanging open.

“Jon?”

Dany poked him in the cheek, and then the nostril.

“I—you—”

“You’d think I offered you a blow job or something,” Dany said, and Jon spluttered so badly, she laughed instead of turning red again. “Jon, it was only a kiss on the cheek.”

“Right, yeah. It was… I wasn’t sure if you…” He squinted at her, his face flaming. “You like me, too?”

Dany nodded. “I think so, yeah. You’re much nicer than the boys I dated in New York.”

“You’re a lot nicer than the other girls I’ve dated, too.” Jon reached for her hand. “Can I kiss you? Like, a real kiss?”

She shifted closer, pushing Jon’s crutch out of the way. “Okay.”

Jon leaned in slowly, gave her a chance to pull away, but Dany only shut her eyes as his lips brushed hers. They were much softer than the other boys she’d kissed before. He didn’t taste like chips or tacos either. A hint of marshmallow lingered on his lips, was even sharper on his tongue when it touched hers. 

Their kiss lasted for less time that Dany wanted. Her entire body was flushed with warmth when Jon pulled back. His face was heated, too, his lips slightly swollen and slick.

“So, about that date,” Dany said. ”How’s Tuesday after school?”

“Uh, I can’t.” At her confused look, Jon offered a sheepish shrug. “I’m grounded until six weeks  _ after _ my leg heals, remember?”


	2. Second Halloween

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jon and Dany's second Halloween, and their first as a couple!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Time for another round of Hallo-fluff, with a side of Hallo-lust!
> 
> Enjoy!

They decided to dress as Gollum and the One Ring for Halloween their senior year. 

Between couch makeouts and quiet picnic dates to the lake, Jon and Dany had debated all summer about their first joint costume. Halloween was Jon’s favorite day of the year. Better than Christmas or New Year’s, even more thrilling than his birthday on November 3rd. Nothing beat a holiday devoted to tricks and treats and everyone in costume.

Their first Halloween as a couple was important, special.

Until Jon arrived home after soccer practice a week prior. His mother was busy with her own costume: a monstrous wolf that would require stilts for her hands and feet. She pushed a plate of raw vegetables and dip toward him.

“Healthy snacks,” Lyanna reminded him. She’d been on a kick ever since she’d come home to find the fridge empty and Jon stuffing his face with a turkey-peanut butter-salsa sandwich.

He devoured the whole plate while she draped the furry fabric over the table and counters.

“Ned and Cat are having a Halloween party.”

“Oh, I was going to hang out with Dany. Hand out candy, if anyone wants to brave her house. Maybe go to the haunted mini golf again.”

His mother smiled, a teasing quirk to her lips. “Aw, that’s right, my baby boy’s doing his first couple’s costume.”

“ _ Mom _ .”

Lyanna only laughed and ducked the baby carrot he threw at her head. Jon scowled and finished the last wedge of red pepper.

“Fine. You two are invited, if you change your minds. I’m going to stay at Winterfell after, but I’ll be back Saturday afternoon at the latest.” Lyanna eyed him. “I think I can trust you to survive one night on your own.”

“On my—you won’t be here? All night?”

“Are you scared of the dark, Jonny boy?”

His mind went immediately to Dany, to an entire night in a parentless house, just the two of them.

“Jon?”

“No, I’m not. It’ll be weird. That’s all.” 

His mom was still watching him, but if she sensed his lie, she didn’t call him on it.

“I can come home, Jon.”

“No!” He flushed, scratched the back of his neck. “No, I’ll be fine on my own. It’s just for one night.”

As soon as Jon was shut away in his room, he called Dany. She picked up with her usual greeting. For once, he was too distracted to get flustered.

“Yes, lover boy?”

“My mom’s going to be gone Halloween.”

“All night?”

“Yes.” Jon locked his bedroom door. “So maybe we could change our plans a bit?”

“Jonathan Stark, are you inviting me over to fuck?”

He flushed at her words even as his cock twitched in his jeans. “I mean, only if you want. I know we’ve said we’re ready for that, but if you’ve changed your mind…”

“I haven’t.” Dany laughed. “Have you?”

“Gods, no, I want you so bad.”

“So you’re gonna hold me down and fuck me with your pretty cock?”

“ _ Dany _ , fuck, you can’t say things like that.”

“I thought you liked it when I talk dirty?”

Jon glanced at his door. “You know I do, but… gods, I’m rock hard just  _ thinking _ about you. You say stuff like that and...”

He shuddered as his cock throbbed.

“Well, get comfy and pretend your hand is my mouth,” Dany said, but her voice had turned ragged. “I’m just sitting here, in my panties touching myself, thinking about your mouth on me, Jon. You remember how hard I came last time?”

“Fuck yeah.” 

Even now he could taste her arousal on his tongue, feel her silky, plump cunt against his mouth. He scrambled out of his jeans and boxers, squeezed his cock in his fist. With a strangled groan, Jon settled on his bed. They’d done this a hundred times by now, whispering sweet nothings at first, but their phone sex had evolved into a fairly dirty past time. 

For a year, they’d taken their physical relationship by steps. Sweet, soft kisses to start; careful makeouts in his jeep before saying good night, but then summer arrived. With summer they’d suddenly had all the free time in the world and an empty house half the day. Sweetness turned to heat, heat to lust. Vertical makeouts became horizontal, hands slid under shirts and shorts. One day, Dany had settled beneath him, her thighs just wide enough for his hips to settle against her. Ever since, they’d been careening into a wonderful bliss of orgasms, by hand and mouth and sometimes just the needy grinding of their hips.

“Are you naked yet?”

“Only the important parts.”

Dany snickered. “Jon, take off your shirt. You  _ know _ what’ll happen if you leave it on, and I  _ love _ that shirt on you.”

This time he did flush. Their phone sex made him nearly as eager as their in-person encounters—and twice as messy. He wriggled out of his dragon T-shirt and returned to Dany’s stuttering breaths on the line.

“So,” Dany whispered, “tell me all about this change of plans. What are you going to do to me next week, Jon?”

He fisted his cock and groaned.

* * *

On Halloween, Jon skipped soccer practice and raced home to shower and change. His mother was still home, already halfway into her monstrous wolf costume, giant fur paws and all.

“Raaawr!” she greeted when he walked through the door.

Jon ducked her flailing, grabbing arms and dropped his backpack by the door. 

“I thought you’d be at Winterfell by now.”

Lyanna gave him a suspicious look at his bluntness. “Eager to be  _ alone _ , son? Are you going to summon spirits while I’m gone? Because I forbid it. Also, that backpack better be in your room by the time I leave.”

He scooped it back up and threw it in his room. After a shower and meticulously picking out his outfit and styling his hair, Jon grabbed his costume. But Lyanna was still in the kitchen, snacking on hummus and celery, her furry paws on the table with her mask.

At once, Jon’s face fell. The longer she lingered, the less time he had with Dany.

“Why the long face, Jonny boy?”

He grimaced and tried to smile. “Genetics.” When she smiled in that dangerous, knowing sort of way of hers, Jon added, “Well, I should go. Don’t want to be late. For the trick-or-treaters, you know. For that. Nothing else. Just… that.”

His mother swirled a celery stalk in the hummus container until Jon was entirely uncomfortable with the motion.

“Just that? No mini golf? No putting balls and things in holes?”

It took all of Jon’s self-control to keep his face neutral.

“No, we’re going to go again this weekend instead. Have a scary movie night today, probably order pizza. Just a normal date.”

His mother munched on the celery stalk and examined him. One sweep from foot to crown, and then the reverse. She swallowed her mouthful of celery and hummus.

“Okay, if you need anything, call me. I trust you know not to answer the door to strangers?”

“Yes.”

“And you’re not to sneak off to the animal shelter to adopt a dog either. I’m not traumatizing you by forcing you to give it back again, understand?”

“Mom, I was  _ seven _ .”

“Still, we aren’t home enough for a dog, Jon, much as we’d both love one,” Lyanna said. “So, no adopting dogs while Mom is away.”

“I won’t.”

She nodded, stuffed her snack back in the fridge and picked up the rest of her costume. Jon helped her carry the head out to the car, then helped her maneuver into the driver’s seat. Lyanna gave him one final look before she left.

“Just be safe, okay, Jon? Whatever tonight brings… be safe and kind.”

He was hugged and kissed through the window, left standing in the short driveway as she backed out and turned to cut through town to his family’s ancestral home. Jon left not long after, double-checking his hair and his deodorant. The drive up to Dragonstone wasn’t far. It was on the opposite side of town as Winterfell, both grand houses that sat atop their respective hills. He parked his old jeep at the top of the house’s long gravel drive.

His heart was pounding as he hopped out, leaving his costume behind. Eagerness filled him, just to see Dany, to touch and kiss and love her—to know that in a few hours they’d be doing something they’d talked about for months…

Rhaegar answered the door.

“Jon.”

His heart stuttered to a halt, his dirty thoughts slamming into a wall. Dany’s brother frowned down at him as if he already knew.

“H-hi, Dr. Targaryen. Dany and I are supposed to hand out candy?”

Rhaegar nodded and let him inside the bright front hall. Much had changed at Dragonstone since his first, unplanned visit. He’d spent countless hours here with Dany and her brother, painting and repairing and replacing floors and cabinets and tiles. All spring and summer they’d worked until most of the house was livable once more.

“Yes, she’s upstairs getting into her costume,” Rhaegar said, eyeing Jon’s simple sweater and jeans. “A couple’s costume?”

“Oh, mine’s still in the jeep,” Jon explained, his mind trying desperately to swirl back to thoughts of tonight. “It’s.. we’ve got a little time until it gets dark and I’m the One Ring. Not easy to get through doorways in it.”

“Hmm, I suppose you’ll have to change after and then again at Winterfell,” Rhaegar said as they arrived in the living room. “I won’t have your driving made risky by a bulky costume.”

“At Winter—” Jon’s mind took another sharp swerve. “Oh, right, yeah. I hadn’t really thought about that. But I’ll change so I can drive.”

“Good.” Rhaegar stumbled as one of Dany’s cats wound around his legs. “Damnit, Viserion. Go.” He turned back to Jon. “I know your mother will be there, too, so I trust there won’t be any funny business with sleeping arrangements.”

“No, sir,” Jon agreed, willing his face to not burn. “We’re sticking to the plan.”

Rhaegar gave a nod of approval. “Okay then. I’ve got dinner in the oven. You’re welcome to eat as much as you like. Ah, Dany.”

Jon turned and laughed. His girlfriend was half crawling down the stairs dressed from head to toe as Gollum. She was remarkably horrible, in her grayish skinsuit shaded and painted to look more like Gollum, a bald cap with stringy hair and some wonderful prosthetics to turn her face into a wretched creature.

“Hello, precious.”

She did a gangly leap at him. Jon caught her, still laughing, and kissed her gently so as not to smudge her makeup.

“You look incredible.”

“We does, precious,” Dany agreed, grinning in a way that made Gollum look even creepier. “Why is precious not precioussss?”

“Cause precious can’t fit through the door,” Jon told her. Then he bopped her on the nose. “I’ll change in a bit. And—oh, hi, boy.”

Dany’s other cats had arrived. Drogon meowed at him from the floor, while Rhaegal pawed at his arm, then rubbed his paw on his fuzzy head.

“Hi, buddy.” Jon scratched the brown tabby’s ears and was greeted with a pleased purr. “We’re going to have to lock you three up while we’re handing out candy, huh?”

“I’ve got them set up in that weird slanted room,” Dany told him, dropping her character. She picked Drogon up and kissed his black ears. “It’s farthest from Rhaegar’s room.”

“Thank you, I’ve got an early surgery tomorrow,” Rhaegar said, scratching Rhaegal’s back. “I’m going to eat and get to bed, but I’ll see you sometime tomorrow night, okay?”

Dany hugged her brother, then led Jon upstairs to the room for the cats. It was a tiny room, made smaller by the slanted roof cutting the ceiling off. A dormer window had been built into the slanted wall. Viserion hurried to the cat bed in the window, making biscuits with his creamy paws, his flame-point tail flicking happily. They had what they needed for the few hours they’d be shut away. A litter box in one corner, food and water in another, some toys and a cat tree Jon recognized from Dany’s bedroom.

“You think they’ll be okay alone?”

Jon nodded. “They’ve got each other still, you know these three. And once we leave, they’ll have the whole house to themselves tonight. Just like us.”

Dany glanced nervously at the open doorway before darting into his arms. She kissed him hard, nibbling on his bottom lip in that way she knew made his toes curl.

“I can’t wait,” she told him when she pulled away. “Just watch what you say. You know how Rhaegar is.”

Jon rolled his eyes, then glanced at the empty doorway. He wasn’t exactly scared of Dr. Targaryen, but he wasn’t that calm around him either. Ever since they’d met, Jon had done his best to prove he wasn’t the troublemaker he’d been that first night. Helping around the house seemed to have aided in that image.

“So, where’s our stash of candy?”

They returned to the main floor, digging out the bags of candy they’d been purchasing and snacking on for the last three weeks. Rhaegar watched them dump everything into three giant bowls, eating the lasagna he’d baked from a box.

“You do realize everyone still skips our house, right?” he said, eyeing the towering heaps. 

“Well, we’ll sit at the end of the driveway so they can’t,” Dany explained. “We’ve got jack-o-lanterns, too. They’d be mad to skip us when they see all of this.”

Her brother still looked skeptical, but Jon believed in her. Not to mention, he’d made Robb, who was on trick-or-treat duty with his younger siblings, promise to stop in with his group. That alone would draw other kids and parents.

Dany beamed at her brother, in a way that was impossible to frown at or refuse. She had that rare quality Jon had learned in the last year, an earnest will to do good and believe in the best of the world, even if that world gave her hardships.

“I’ll go grab my costume,” Jon said. “It’ll be dark soon.”

Changing from Jon Stark to the One Ring was no easy feat. He and Dany had made their costumes together, making her elaborate bald cap and face and his giant ring. Getting into his black skinsuit was simple. Maneuvering into the giant ring, complete with accurate Black Speech inscriptions, wasn’t. He bobbed and twisted, finally getting its giant paper mache circumference around himself, but then he couldn’t get the bedroom door open. The ring was too wide and his arms too short.

“Dany?” he called, bending and twisting as he tried to reach the lock. “Dany, can you open the door?”

He hollered again. Instead of Dany’s voice, one of the cat’s yowled and scratched at the door.

Eventually, she came looking for him, then laughed when she knocked and opened the door. Jon was on his knees by then, the One Ring too in the way for him to even sit on the bed. Dany offered him a hand up, still giggling.

“Maybe this wasn’t such a good costume idea.”

“It’s—ugh, fine.” Jon twisted himself through the doorway, but his face fell at the sight of the stairs, blocked on both sides by walls. “Oh, fuck me.”

“I plan to, lover boy. Here.”

Together, they managed to get to the main floor in one piece just as Rhaegar was turning in for the night.

“Be safe and smart. If anyone weird shows up, call me.”

“And have fun, right?” 

Dany’s teasing was met with a frown Jon had come to know well. Every time he saw Rhaegar’s frown, it reminded him to smile more.

“No drinking or smoking.”

“At Winterfell? Jon’s mom would never allow it.”

“No, but that uncle of his might.”

“Uncle Brandon would probably,” Jon agreed, “but Uncle Ned and Aunt Cat would flay him for it.”

They headed out into the dusk, bowls piled high with candy. Dany glanced back as her brother shut the front door.

“He’s so broody sometimes.” She rolled her eyes and began to skip. “Come, precioussss.”

Jon hurried after her to the open gate. While he’d changed, Dany had been busy. She’d set up the jack-o-lanterns they’d carved on Sunday, and run an electrical cable down from the house for the lights they’d strung up over the arched gate. Two lawn chairs were waiting for them.

“Did you bring your eerie One Ring whisper-music?”

In answer, Jon clicked on the soundtrack where his phone hung around his neck, the screen dimmed.

Dany gave a convincing little Gollum shriek and chased him around the yard. As the porch lights flickered on in the town down below, they raced across the darkening yard. She caught him half a dozen times before they stopped. Someone was shouting at them from the end of the drive.

“You handing out candy or not, Jon?”

They returned to their lawn chairs and decorations. As he’d planned, Robb and his siblings were their first visitors. Only his cousin Sansa was absent. But Arya was dressed as a man with no face, Bran a wizard, and Rickon a muscular, but short, werewolf. Dany beamed at them, but with her Gollum look it was more of a leer.

“You two are a sight,” Robb said, raising his eyebrows as Dany hunkered down into her Gollum crawl. “Well, dorks, say the—”

“Have you come to steal the precioussss?” 

Dany crawl-walked toward Arya who didn’t flinch. But Rickon leapt away waving his candy bag. Bran considered her with a tilt of his head.

“I suppose you are about the right size for Gollum. Trick or treat?”

“Stay away from… my…  _ preciousssss! _ ”

She ran off into the dark yard, startling Rickon again. 

Arya laughed this time and dug a hand into the candy bowl Jon offered her. “I wanna be her best friend until I’m Nana’s age.”

Jon turned to watch his love clambering around on all fours like a wild woman. More children were approaching at the sight of the Stark kids, eyes glowing in the decorative lights they’d hung.

“Best move along,” Robb said with a grin. “I’ll leave you alone, precious.”

“Shut it.” 

Jon turned back to the next group, hoisting their buckets and bags up to a resounding shout of, “Trick or treat!”

As he passed out candy and complimented all their costumes, Dany came hobbling over.

“We don’t like nasty Hobbitses, does we, precious?” She stroked his giant ring as the kids giggled. “Don’t gives it aways, my preciousssss.”

“They’re ninjas and princesses and a marvelous frog,” Jon told her, smiling at the tiny frog girl. “No Hobbits here.”

Dany-Gollum considered the children, then scooped up a handful of candy and dropped a piece into each bag.

“Just don’t touch… my…  _ preciousssss! _ ”

They scattered down the sidewalk, shouting and laughing as Dany hobbled after them. When she returned, Jon was smiling so wide his face hurt.

“This is fun,” she said, grabbing a Reese’s from the bowl. “Next year, we should get more lights, and pumpkins up the drive and—”

“I love you,” Jon told her.

Dany faltered, then smiled shyly. “I love you, too.”

* * *

Three hours later, their bowls of candy were bare except for a few boxes of Milk Duds. Jon tugged the One Ring off himself as soon as they packed up for the night. Both of them wore large grins. Dany couldn’t stop gushing about their successful night.

“And did you see that little T-rex girl? And her brother as Blastoise?” Dany squealed as she opened the front door. “They were  _ so _ cute!”

“Yeah, I liked Mr. Lannister’s nephew, too. That lion costume was impressive.”

He changed back in the house, then met Dany—now Gollum-free beside a few makeup smudges—at the front door. Anxiety and lust twisted in his guts like a tornado in a bottle.

“Ready?”

Dany bit her lip, smiling as she nodded. “Yup.”

She hoisted her bag over her shoulder and led the way out to his jeep. Jon tapped his fingers on the steering wheel the entire drive back to his house. It was eerily quiet inside. The kitchen sink dripped, the heat blew and filled the room. But there were no sounds from his mother’s room. No television laugh track in the living room.

Dany took it all in and smiled shyly. “I’ll just put my bag in your room?”

“Sure.” Jon swallowed. “I’ll, uh, order pizza. We can watch that new horror movie on Netflix.”

“Mmm, Blood, Guts, and Glory Part Four. Look at you, setting the mood.”

Dany kissed his cheek and disappeared down the hall. Jon ordered their pizzas on his phone, picking his favorite—jalapeno and bacon—and then Dany’s—bacon and pineapple. Then he settled in on the couch, Dany snuggling up to him when she returned. He let her handle the remote, too distracted to focus on what was happening on screen.

Her hair smelled like strawberries and spun sugar, was soft as silk where it touched his skin. She was warm, too, enough to make him start to sweat as his thoughts drifted back to his room—and to all the things he hoped to explore tonight and in the early morning.

“Oh, right in the nose!” Dany pressed her face to his chest, laughing and cringing.

He looked up as the girl crumbled to the floor, a street sign pole speared through her head.

“Nice and gross,” he said, but then Dany’s fingers rubbed at his chest and his brain shorted out. Every bit of blood he had began to flood south.

“Yeah, it looks more real than that other movie we watched on Monday. What was it called? The one where it looked like ketchup.”

“Umm.” Her fingers continued to stroke gently until his jeans were way too tight. “I, uh…”

“Jon?” Dany paused the movie and sat up. “You okay? You look… oh.”

Her hand brushed the front of his jeans. She grinned in the worst, most sultry way possible. “I see  _ someone _ isn’t focused on the entertainment.”

“I just—it’s only—”

The doorbell rang.

_ Thank fuck. _

Jon hurried to answer, one hand in his pocket to push his erection down. He traded the delivery man cash for their pizzas. In the kitchen, Jon shoved half a slice into his mouth for something else to focus on. Dany joined him, taking small bites.

“You okay, Jon?”

He grunted and shoved the rest of his slice into his mouth.

“Want to skip the movie and watch it later?”

Jon didn’t answer. How could he?

He was too horny to focus and too nervous to go forward. Another slice joined his first. Dany ate in silence at the counter, watching him as he chewed and swallowed until he had no pizza left. Then he sat on the stool beside her.

“Jon? We can wait, if you aren’t ready.”

She rubbed his shoulder and finished her slice of pizza.

“No! I am, only… I’m so damn horny and scared.”

Instead of saying something soothing, Dany laughed. “Me, too. Just less obvious, but my panties aren’t exactly dry.”

“ _ Fuck _ .” He tugged at his curls and groaned.

“If it helps, I can go back to my Gollum voice to cool you off.”

“That won’t—”

“Where’s my precious?” she demanded, her hand drifting to the front of his jeans. “Yes, precious, we likes that, don’t we, precious?”

“ _ Oh my god _ .”

Dany hugged him. “Come on, let’s go back to the movie. It’s just a normal night, Jon. You and me, and whatever we decide, okay? No pressure.”

“Right, no pressure.”

But he carried the weight of their plans back to the living room couch. Dany turned their movie back on, but paused it quickly when she felt the tension drawn tight under his skin.

“Jon, do you want to talk?”

“I—” He shrugged. His pulse pounded his temples like a bass drum in a metal song. “I’m… fine.”

She stroked his cheek, and the gentle touch cracked him.

“What if I disappoint you?”

Dany stared at him in bewilderment. “Disappoint me?”

“When we—” Jon gestured between them, then leapt to his feet, pacing. “We know how it all works, and we’ve done  _ plenty _ other ways, but… I mean, you’ve read stuff, too. Most guys, the first time… if I only  _ last _ a few seconds…”

Dany laughed in disbelief. “Jon, it’s okay.”

He flushed and turned away. “I want it to be good for both of us.”

“And it will,” Dany assured him. “And yeah, maybe the first try we’ll still be figuring things out. That’s okay with me. We weren’t pros at oral or anything else the first try either. But I  _ know _ how hard you can make me cum with that pretty, pouty mouth.”

She plucked his bottom lip until he couldn’t help up smile.

“Okay, stop.” Jon caught her wrist. “I just keep thinking, we’ve only got tonight to figure this out, and who knows how long it’ll be until we get another chance. If it’s not perfect—”

“Shh,” Dany said. “I’m with you, Jon. That’s perfect for me.”

He settled into her embrace, welcoming the soft brush of her lips against his. Dany pressed closer to him, one hand sliding into his loose curls, the other tugging gently at the collar of his sweater. They moved back to the couch in a dance that had become quite familiar in the last several months. His whole body relaxed as Dany pushed him onto his back and lay down atop him.

He lost himself in her taste, the steady roll of her hips with his. Their shirts ended up on the floor, his greedy hands sliding down the back of her jeans to cup her ass. Dany gasped and jerked, her knee sliding higher—

They both yelped as the movie turned back on to the high-pitched shrieks of someone about to be murdered.

Dany sat back on his knees, flustered and breathing hard. She dug the remote out from under them and turned the TV off. Jon rubbed her hips as they both calmed down.

“So, are you going to invite me to your bed then, or leave it here for tonight?”

But there was no teasing in her tone, just a patient, hopeful shine in her eyes. He was ready at the sight of her steady gaze, come what may.

“Let’s go to bed.”

He shut and locked the door behind them, turned to find Dany unhooking her bra and undoing her jeans. Jon hurried to do the same. They’d seen all there was to see of each other’s bodies, just never all at once. And never both together. But Dany had always been shameless about nudity, something that had both aroused and emboldened him over the summer.

“Okay if I keep my socks on?” Dany asked as she pushed her panties down. “I hate having cold toes.”

“Whatever you need.” Jon pushed his boxer-briefs down, too, his cock only half-hard now. “I, um…”

“I know just the things you love, remember?”

Dany dug something out of her bag and set it on the night-stand. “Lube,” she explained. “Just in case. And you got the—”

“Condoms, yeah. In the drawer.”

She pulled those out, too, then lay down on his bed. Jon swallowed at the sight of her, stretched out and naked on his old flannel sheets.

“Well? Come keep me warm.”

He’d never sat down so gingerly on his bed, but Dany wasn’t having it. She tugged him back to the pillows with her.

“You’re like a deer in headlights.” Her smile shifted to concern. “We really  _ can _ wait, Jon.”

“No, I’m sure, I am. I’m just… taking all of this in.” He grinned sheepishly. “You. Me. Both naked at the same time.”

“For once.”

He laughed and settled in beside her. “I guess I’ve spent so much time thinking about all the ways this would play out that the reality of it’s a bit more than I anticipated.”

“Really? How’ve you been picturing it?”

He blushed.

“That dirty, huh?”

“In the shower. You surprise me,” Jon admitted. “And one time, in that cupboard under the stairs at your place. We had to be quiet, because your brother was in the kitchen. And in the hall here. We tried to make it to my room, but we ended up against the wall instead.”

“I’m sensing a theme of urgency.”

“I’m super horny all the time,” Jon said defensively. “Dating you has only made that situation worse.”

“So, you regret dating me?”

Jon snorted. “Hardly.” He rolled onto his side to face her. “What about you? What fantasies have you had about our first time together?”

“None.”

Dany shrugged as he stared at her in disbelief.

“You’re pulling my leg.”

“I could pull something else if you like,” Dany countered. She shrugged again as he continued to watch her in amazement. “I have  _ fantasies _ , but of the stuff we’ve already done. Your mouth and fingers, or my mouth on you. This first time, I don’t want to imagine a hundred ways it could go, or how it’ll make me feel. I want to experience you and me and us just as we are.”

Jon squinted at her. “You’re such a bloody poet.”

That earned him a firm poke on his nose tip. “And you’re a romantic pretending to be a grump.” 

He tugged her to his chest to tickle her, but they both paused as their bodies pressed close. In the year they’d been together, they’d never been skin to skin like this. Jon relaxed his hold, but Dany kissed him, stroking his neck and scalp in that wonderful way that made him moan. It wasn’t long before he was hard again. Dany reached for him between their bellies, just as he slid his hand down the curve of her ass to the gathering wetness between her thighs.

_ I’m going to be inside her soon. _

Jon’s mouth went slack at the realization. He let Dany roll him onto his back, but at his sudden lack of enthusiastic kisses, she stilled above him once more.

“Jon?”

“Wh—yeah, sorry. Just… a brain moment.”

“Brain,” Dany asked, “or cock?”

“Both.”

She wiggled away and opened the box of condoms, taking one out and handing it to him. “You’re the pro at this.”

He scurried upright and put the condom on, hands shaking. Then Dany was pulling him toward her, but Jon resisted.

“You on top,” he said. “I don’t want to hurt you or go too fast. You decide.”

For the first time, a spark of nervousness entered her eyes. Dany straddled his hips as he took his cock in hand. They fumbled a bit, trying to line their bodies up. Finally, Dany grabbed his shoulder and grasped his cock instead.

“Something to work on,” she said, smiling as she lined his cock up with her cunt. “Practice?”

“As much as you want.”

The blunt head of his cock pressed at her lips. Jon breathed in sharply.

“That much? We haven’t even fucked yet, Jon. What if you hate it?”

“I about lost my mind the first time I was in your mouth,” he reminded her. “This—”

Dany pushed down onto him. Jon groaned, his head dropping back against the headboard with a loud  _ thump _ . She gasped and stilled, only the head of his cock inside her.

“Dany?”

Her eyes were shut, her mouth open. Jon shifted to support more of her weight, one hand rubbing at her lower back.

“I’m okay,” she mumbled, tilting toward him. “You’re thicker than I expected.”

“Oh.” He would have preened at the compliment if he wasn’t so frightened of hurting her. “What can I do?”

Dany leaned more into him, until their foreheads were together. Her soft breaths brushed over his cheeks. Despite the wonderful tight heat of her, his mind was full only of concern for his love.

“A bit of lube, I think.”

Jon fumbled with the bottle on the bed and coated himself. Then Dany pushed down further with a soft sound Jon knew meant pleasure. He kissed her softly as she pushed further, then lifted. At that first real slide, pleasure rocketed up his spine. It took all of his fading control not to thrust upward.

“Yes, that’s better.” Dany wrapped her arms around his neck as she dropped down. “Oh, gods.”

When she lifted up again, Jon grabbed her hips to guide her.

“Good?”

“Yeah, fuck, keep doing that.”

She didn’t need any more encouragement from him. After the first few rocks, Dany found a steady rhythm, working and rolling her hips. Each clench of her heat was divine, the press of her lips to his enough to almost send him over the edge. His mind swam as they rocked together, to the soft moans and pants of her moving above him. Already, he could feel his pleasure building. Jon fumbled down her belly until he could her clit, stiff and eager.

Dany shuddered as he rubbed her, her rhythm faltering.

“Can you—”

Jon followed her gesture, carefully rolling them both over so that he was hovering above her. His cock slipped out, but he followed it, pushing down her body until his mouth closed over her pussy. His confidence swelled at the sound she made—and the embarrassed way she clapped a hand over her mouth.

“It’s just us,” Jon reminded her, reaching up to push her hand away. “Gods, let me hear you for once.”

Dany swotted him playfully. “I’d rather have you inside me again. That was nice.”

He was a centimeter from sucking her clit when he paused. “Yeah?”

“Might be better when you’re working your hips,” Dany told him, tugging at one of his curls. “Afterall, you’re stronger than me.”

Jon climbed back up her before she could blink. He kissed her at once, even as she giggled at his enthusiasm. Then he lined himself up and thrust into her. She squeezed around him, so tight he curled his toes.

“Fuck, you feel so good.”

He settled on his forearms, Dany’s hands cupping his face to kiss him. She muttered encouragements, for harder and faster and deeper. Jon groaned as he moved at her requests, panting as he careened toward release.

“Dany, I’m gonna—”

She kissed him hard and Jon was gone. His spine curled as he came. Dany kissed him through it, stroking his cheek and rubbing frantically at her clit between them. He felt it went she came, just on the end of his own orgasm, clenching tight enough to make his vision swim. As soon as her release eased, Jon rolled onto his back beside her.

“We’re definitely doing that again,” Dany said softly, her voice scratchy and warm in the way it always was after she came. “Hold me?”

Jon turned onto his side and wrapped his arm around her waist. They kicked at the blanket under they were underneath them. 

“I love you, Jon Stark.” She kissed his hand and set it over her heart. “Wake me later for another round, okay?”

“Okay.”

* * *

Jon woke to frost on his bedroom window and strands of Dany’s hair stuck to his eyelashes. She was snuggled up tight, her bare skin warm against his. He stayed curled up with her, in their toasty cocoon of blankets as the frosty window turned to dew rivers. Every part of him was heavy with contentment. His eyelids drifted shut once more, then snapped open at the distant, but familiar creak of the front door.

Rattling keys echoed down the hall. Heavy jangling, then the scrape of the lock. His mom was home.

“Fuck.” 

She wasn’t supposed to be home until this afternoon.

Jon glanced at Dany still dozing against his chest. He eased himself from the bed and their tangle of blankets and limbs, quickly grabbing his pajama pants and a sweater. They almost smacked into each other in the narrow hall. Jon shut his door before Lyanna could see inside.

“I thought you were staying at Uncle Ned’s til late.”

Lyanna yawned and dragged her fingers through her mess of curls. She gave Jon that damn knowing look, then shrugged.

“And I thought my son was still a blushing virgin.”

“Mom!”

His entire body went hot like he’d stepped into a sauna. Lyanna only laughed, ruffling his own tangled curls.

“Still fit the blushing part, I see.” She offered him a soft smile. “Come on, love. I’ll make us breakfast. Dany likes waffles, right?”

Jon followed her into the cramped kitchen, folding his arms over his chest. She said nothing else, simply started pulling things out of the cabinets: a waffle iron, a few mixing bowls, flour, and sugar.

“Blueberry, if we’ve got them.”

She knew. Somehow, his mum had figured out their plans for last night. Dany would be mortified when she woke up, especially if his mom sat them down for a long talk. And if it was anything like the ones she’d given Jon since he’d first asked about sex six years ago…

“Mom,  _ please _ .”

Lyanna only hummed as she dug through the refrigerator. Granted, it was half-empty, but she still made a show of it. Like she always did when she was messing with him.

“ _ Mom. _ ”

Finally, she pulled out what was left of the plastic blueberry container and examined them. “You think these are still fresh?”

She tossed him one. Jon bobbled it between his hands before popping it into his mouth.

“It’s fine,” he muttered. “Mum, you don’t need to have a talk with me again. Or Dany. Or both of us. We’re good. Okay?”

“Oh?”

“Oh, as in ‘Oh, we’re fine’,” Jon insisted. “Can you please just…”

He wanted to say go. To demand she leave them in embarrassed peace, but Jon stopped himself. If he started arguing or acting the boss with Lyanna, he’d lose quicker than he could say ‘grounded’.

“I’m not staying long.” She frowned at him, but in a sad sort of way instead of at the edge of anger. “Jon, I only wanted to check in and make sure you were alright. That everything last night… you might have thought you were slick, but it was quite obvious.” His mother shrugged. “Honestly, I’ve been expecting to  _ walk in _ on you two for  _ months _ .”

“ _ Mom. _ ”

His face was so hot Jon feared it would melt off.

“What? It’s entirely normal at your age, for you to move to that stage of an intimate relationship with the girl—woman—you love,” Lyanna reminded him. “And I want you both to be free to experience and express your love, okay? Why else do you think I put up with your Uncle Brandon all damn night last night?”

“You—you’re not mad? Or… you gave us privacy,” Jon said in disbelief. “Intentionally?”

“Yes, you goof.” His mother laughed and and mixed up everything for the waffle batter. “Gods, I don’t want you doing what me or Benjen or  _ Brandon _ did at your age. My father was a nightmare of rules and nonsense. We couldn’t tell him anything. Only Ned got along with him when we were teenagers, that old sourpuss.”

“Uncle Ned’s a good guy,” Jon said defensively.

She laughed again. “Yes, he is, but he was a terrible teenager. Always doing what he was told, obeying the rules, never stepping out of line. I don’t want you to be entirely like him either. I want you to be happy and responsible and to have a mature and healthy relationship. With Dany  _ and _ me. To be free to make mistakes or have uncertainties and to come to me if something happens. You’re a young man now, Jon. Much as I’d love to keep you as my baby forever, that’s not reality. Part of growing up now is you and me navigating from mother and son to… well, friends, I hope.”

“Oh.”

He’d never considered such a thing. His mom had always just been his mom. The center of his universe as a little boy, less and less in recent years, but still with a strong gravitational pull nevertheless. Changing that felt strange.

“Jon, no.” Lyanna set the bowl down and came over to him. “Bug, I will  _ always  _ be your mama, okay? But you’re becoming an adult now. Before you know it, we’ll be equals in every way. This is a first step toward that.”

“Toward friendship?”

“Unless you fuck up between now and June,” she warned with a teasing smile. “Then Mama Bear is coming back full-force.”

He grinned. “I think I can be okay with that.”

“Good.” She kissed his cheek. “Now, you finish making breakfast in bed for your wonderful girlfriend.”

She grabbed her scarf and an apple from the fruit bowl.

“What? You aren’t staying?”

“Nope, you two enjoy yourselves a bit longer,” Lyanna said. “But tonight when I get home, we’ll set up some ground rules about you and Dany being sexually active, okay?”

He winced, but nodded. “Okay, Mom.”

“And your shirts better not still be in the living room when I return! Dead giveaway, right there, son!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next up, Jon and Dany's first Halloween post-high school! Dun dun duuuuuuuuuuuun!


	3. Third Halloween

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which a bubble bath occurs, and someone gets fucked with a red dildo.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Another day, another Halloween, another Jon's butt gets appreciated with some first time pegging.

Dany’s bones ached as she dragged her feet up the front porch from her car. A blustery wind whipped at her skirt and hair, tried to lift her knit hat off her head. Dany scurried up the steps into Dragonstone’s entrance hall. The house was hers now. Rhaegar had moved out just that summer after her high school graduation. Once she’d signed up for fall classes at the local university, Jon had moved in to start a new chapter of their life together.

“Hello, sweet boy,” Dany greeted, bending to scratching Drogon’s ears as he wound between her legs. “Where’s everyone else?”

He only purred and trotted off to the kitchen. Dany scouted the main floor out, from their half-completed study to the kitchen where three empty cat bowls were still on the floor. She set them in the sink, frowning. Fridays were her long day. She opened at the Dragon Fire coffee shop with Irri, then headed to two lectures and her biology lab. She’d gotten out over an hour late today. Her amphibian dissection partner had never shown up and left her to solo the task.

“Jon?”

Dany headed upstairs in search of her other three boys.

The reading nook was empty, but a faint light brightened their bedroom doorway. She found them in the master bathroom, and started laughing almost at once. 

“You are  _ covered _ in cat hair.”

Jon smiled sleepily from the bathtub. He was sunk into the tub, Viserion half in the water and half resting on Jon. Pale cat hair drifted along the surface and stuck to Jon’s skin.

Dany kneeled down and kissed his forehead.

“He was very excited to get in the water,” Jon muttered. “Wore himself out taking laps. I drew it for you for when you got home. Figured better to use it than let it go cold.”

Dany reached over and rubbed Viserion’s wet head. He blinked slowly at her and yawned.

“Any chance of de-cat-hairing the tub so you and me can have a soak?”

“Mmm, I might shrivel up, but aye, we can do that.”

Jon drained the tub while she went back into the bedroom to strip. Viserion put up quite a fuss at being removed from the water, but he was just as pleased to be bundled up in a towel and rubbed dry by both of them.

“You’re such a baby,” Dany chided him. “Where’s Rhaegal?”

Jon snorted. “Hiding somewhere, I suspect. Look on his face when Viserion and I got in the tub, you’d think we’d just murdered someone.”

“Cats don’t typically like water,” Dany said. “Except this boy, hmm?”

Viserion mewed softly and burrowed in the damp towel. They left him on their bed, and returned to the bathroom. Jon drained and rinsed the tub, then plugged it as it filled back up. Dany dug out her bubblebath and poured far too much in—just the way Jon liked it. After a few rocky weeks to start, they’d learned how to navigate sharing spaces. Some nights had been only arguments, others silly fights that ended in rough makeup sex and whispered apologies and conversation in the dark. Dating in high school and dating as roommates and new adults had proven to be a strange, but not insurmountable change.

“After you, m’lady.”

Jon held her hand as she stepped in, then slid in behind her, groaning at the heat and suds.

“Did you finish your costume?”

“Aye,” Jon kissed her neck and began slicking her hair with water. “I’m going to be the best Westley your Buttercup has ever known tomorrow.”

“Minus the wrong hair color.”

“We  _ could _ bleach my hair,” Jon said and Dany snorted. “What? You think you’re the only one who can pull off pale blond in this house?”

“Oh, I know I am.”

Jon sat up, sloshing water onto the floor. “You’re on.”

“Jon—”

“Nah, I’m gonna do it. For the costume.”

Dany twisted to stare at him, taking in his wonderfully dark, damp curls sticking to his forehead and cheeks and scruffy chin.

“But your  _ hair _ .”

“It’ll grow out,” Jon reminded her. “Besides, it’s getting  _ really _ long.”

As proof, Jon pulled one of his curls straight. It came well past his shoulder, almost to his nipple without the natural ringlet curls. Dany ran her fingers over that same silky strand and sighed.

“Okay, if you really want to, but I was thinking of a different new thing this Halloween.”

“Oh?”

She bit her lip and then pinched his left nipple. “Yup, but if you’d rather bleach your hair to satisfy that requirement—”

“No, no, what’s this, uh, idea you’ve got?”

His eyes darkened as she continued to tease his nipple, his own hands wandering to her hip beneath the bubbly surface.

“Well, remember that new toy we bought? I was thinking we might… try something different with it tonight. Ring in Halloween right.”

“Different?” Jon frowned, then jumped as her hand drifted down to pinch his ass. “Oh, you want to… try  _ that _ .”

“What? You very much enjoy my fingers.”

“I did, yeah.” Jon flushed and scrubbed at his hair. “But something bigger…”

“As someone who has experience going from fingers to cock, let me assure you, cock is much nicer,” Dany teased. “Oh, don’t blush like a virgin, Jon.”

“I’m not! I’m… nervous.”

“I’ll be gentle,” Dany said, kissing his cheek and then his throat. “I’d never want to hurt my sweet, lovely boy.”

“Dany…”

His blush darkened at her ministrations, and when she reached for his cock, Dany found him already hard.

“Bath first, then once you’re nice and relaxed, we’ll try?”

“Yes,” Jon agreed, grinning sheepishly. “But no promises on all the way.”

They bathed and relaxed until all the suds were gone. Jon washed her hair and she washed his, then they climbed out and ran the cats out of their bedroom. Dany shut the door with a soft thud and sharp click of the lock.

“Ready?”

Jon groaned, but nodded as he lay back on the bed.

Dany huffed at his reaction. “I don’t know why you act like this is such a chore, Jon Stark. Last I recall, you blacked out two of the three times I’ve fingered your ass.”

His head shot up. “It’s not—I  _ do _ like it,” he admitted, flushing pink. “I just… I don’t know. Like I shouldn’t be the center of attention when we’re together. I feel like I shouldn’t like that, I guess.”

“But you do,” Dany said as she opened the drawer they kept their ever-growing collection of sex toys in. “Don’t be ashamed of what you like, Jon. Not with me, okay? Besides, it’s my turn to leave you breathless. How many nights in the last week have you eaten me out until I can’t stand?”

When she held up the strap-on and their new red dildo, Jon nodded.

“Don’t forget the lube.”

“Of course not, love. Lay down.”

Jon slumped back onto the bed, giving a little jolt as Dany traced her fingers up the sculpted muscles of his thighs. 

“Relax.”

He grunted and shut his eyes. Dany pulled the lube out of the nightstand and set it on the bed with the strap-on and dildo. This dildo was much thinner than their last purchase, a starter one for their blossoming interests in anal. Her insides writhed in excitement to finally use it, to work her hips and stretch Jon open.

“Dany?”

“Shh,” she murmured as she kissed his thigh. “Relax, love.”

He twitched and sighed as she kissed her way up one thigh and then the other. By the time she returned to the apex, his cock was thick and flushed, bobbing lightly with his groans and shifts.

“Dany…”

In answer, she caught his right testicle with her teeth and nibbled gently. Jon cursed and jerked, then jolted again when her hand closed around his cock. She sucked at each of his balls as she stroked him, distracting him from what was still a very alarmed jump whenever her fingers brushed his hole.

“ _ Fuck _ .”

Jon grimaced and twisted as her finger probed between his cheeks, rubbing against his puckered skin.

“Don’t make me hold your legs apart,” Dany warned, teasing the underside of his cock with her tongue. “Go on, love, show me where you want me.”

His face was so red Dany was certain her fingertips would hiss and steam if she touched his cheek. But Jon obliged her. He spread his legs all of a foot, eyes on the ceiling.

Dany rolled her eyes and scooped up the lube. One day, she hoped Jon would be as eager at the start as he was with the first curl on her fingers inside him, but his embarrassment was undeniable.

“Do you want to stop?”

“No.” His sharp, high-pitched answer made her grin. “No,” he added in his normal voice. “Just… go slow.”

“I said I would. Whatever you need to be comfortable.”

“Right, yeah.” Jon swallowed, then lifted a hand toward her. “Hold my hand?”

If not for his anxious, dark eyes, Dany might have laughed at his request. But she took his hand and kissed each knuckle.

“Jon, it’s not like I haven’t fingered you before.”

“I know, but a dildo is a lot bigger.”

“Not so big as  _ you _ .” She pecked the tip of his cock and smiled as he snorted. “Good?”

“Gods, yes,” Jon said, and he draped his free arm over his eyes. “Have your way with me, Daenerys Targaryen.”

She bit the side of his cock to make him yelp.

“Eyes open, Jon Stark. I want to see that hungry look in your eyes when I’m inside you.”

For the first time, his embarrassed resolve cracked. Jon shivered, his legs instinctively spreading wider. Dany took that instant to press her lube-slicked finger back against his hole. Jon shuddered, then moaned as she pushed inside. All at once, his entire demeanor changed. He moved with her thrusting finger, his free hand grasping his cock as she crooked her fingers.

It wasn’t long before his eyes began to flutter, his breathing stuttering. Dany’s second finger pushing inside undid him. Jon threw his head back, gasping and choking, and giving her the most lovely moan that set her ablaze. His pleasure was so different when Jon allowed her to do this. Quick and bright and overwhelming, but a softness embraced him in these moments. She was certain the proud powerful feeling that stirred inside her now was just how he felt when his mouth was on her, coaxing screaming from deep in her belly.

She loved when Jon took control, but she loved when he let himself go for her, too.

“Good boy,” Dany murmured, she kissed his belly, then took over for his limp hand. “That’s it, let yourself go, Jon.”

He was flushed and sweaty, gazing down at her with bliss-soaked eyes.

“More?”

“Yeah,” he muttered hoarsely. “Please.”

Hearing that word made her belly clench and her pussy throb. She rubbed herself as she continued to work him with two fingers, thrusting and curling and spreading them wider inside him. Sliding Jon into a second orgasm proved easy. With her mouth on his cock, and her fingers working at his prostate, he was trembling and cursing within minutes.

His legs jerked wide open for her then, as inviting as she’d ever seen. Dany eased her fingers from inside him and scrambled to get her harness on. Jon slurred at her, his hand grasping for hers once more. She clutched his hand as she connected the dildo to her harness, then slicked it with lube.

“You still okay, Jon?”

He was a moment in answering, his hips weakly rutting at the air. “Yeah, I’m… hold my hand.”

Vulnerability stared back at her when Dany looked up from repositioning herself. 

“Oh, Jon.” She pressed her knee into the bed and hoisted herself up over him for a quick kiss. “I love you.”

“You better.”

Dany smacked his chest playfully as she slid back down him. “Ready?”

“Yes,” Jon said, as he squeezed her hand. “Let’s see how good of a fuck you are.”

“You’ll have to teach me,” Dany told him as she settled between his thighs and took her cock in hand. “Maybe some salsa dancing classes.”

“Hmm, maybe— _ oh _ .”

The head of her cock slipped in with ease after her fingers. It was half the size of his own, but still a very different sensation. Dany peered up at him when he let out an audible gulp.

“Okay?”

“Yeah, that’s… wow. Different.”

She pushed in deeper, watching the sparkling red of the dildo disappear inch by inch. Jon inhaled sharply when her hips met his ass.

“Still okay?”

“ _ Fuck. _ ” He gurgled stupidly and exhaled. “I can feel you right up against…  _ fuck _ .”

Dany lifted his left leg and kissed the inside of his knee. She rubbed his belly as he adjusted.

“Okay,” Jon said after another moment. “Okay, fuck me.”

“Yeah?”

He squeezed her hand, then cursed as she pulled her hips back and thrust into him. After that, his vocabulary devolved into little more than gasping groans and muttered curses mixed with her name. 

“Shit,  _ Dany _ ,  _ fuuuck, harder. _ Harder harder harder.”

She tried her best, rocking her hips with more force, but for Jon, it didn’t seem to be enough. His voice quieted, and he reached his free hand up for her arm.

“Up the bed some,” Jon said. “You need more stability. Fuck hard from here, too.”

He rubbed his palm over her abdomen, then pulled her with him up the bed. Sometimes it surprised her how much physical strength he could pack into his thin frame. Dany repositioned herself between his thighs as he guided her.

“Arms here,” Jon said, placing her palms on either side of his waist. “Knees on the bed, work from your core.”

After a few gentle motions with Jon helping her learn the best movement, she got the hang of it. Dany slammed her hips into him, gazing down at his sweaty face as he groaned.

“Yes, fuck me like that.”

She drove into him as Jon arched beneath her, his head thrown back. Every tendon in his neck was taut. His voice was strained in a way she’d never heard from him before. Each gasp and cry and curse made her belly pool with heat. He was a masterpiece beneath her, inches from completion and perfection.

“Come for me, Jon,” Dany encouraged. “Touch yourself, yes.”

His gave his cock a few clumsy strokes, and then came. Dany stilled at the sight of him. Every muscle in his body seemed to tense, and even she could feel the grasping clench of him around the dildo. For a moment, she worried he might not take another breath, but he did. Jon heaved in a lungful of air with a guttural moan.

“Dany, Dany,  _ fuck _ .”

She eased out of him, then jerked him off slowly as she lay down beside him. After a few minutes, though, she stopped.

“Can’t no more,” he muttered. “Can’t come anymore.”

“Okay.” She kissed his sweaty temple, then giggled as Jon nuzzled into her. “You’re so cuddly after prostate orgasms.”

“Feels good.”

“Better than your other orgasms?”

“Sometimes.” He curled into her and kissed her collarbone. “Fuck you later?”

Dany snorted as the grandfather clock down the hall chimed in midnight. “You and I both know you’re going to sleep for at least six hours, but if you want to wake me at dawn with your talented little mouth, I won’t object.”

He gave a soft, peaceful snore, and snuggled into her.

“Happy Halloween, love.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next up, Rhaenys and Aegon come to visit their auntie, Jon makes a big life decision, and Dany gets asked a very important question...


	4. Fourth Halloween

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I returneth from taming the NaNoWriMo beast. So here's Part Four, another Halloween for the books!
> 
> Enjoy!

“Jon, they’re here!”

He finished tying back his hair as Dany’s excited squeals echoed from the front hall. Her niece and nephew--more like cousins in truth--had come to visit for a long week. Jon liked the pair from the one time he’d met them at Rhaegar’s last Christmas, and their video chats with Dany every Friday.

“Rhae! Gosh, look at your  _ hair! _ ”

Jon came into the hall just as Dany and Rhaenys were embracing and twirling each other around the room. Aegon rolled his eyes and gave Jon a quick hug.

“How’s it?”

“Cold as shit,” Jon told him. “How’s Griff?”

“Dramatic and cute as ever,” Aegon said. “Almost makes me regret having a boyfriend sometimes, the way he carries on.”

Dany swooped in to hug her nephew, and Rhaenys traded off to hug Jon.

“Nice hair.”

Rhae grinned and ran her fingers over her short spiky black locks.

“Dad almost had a heart attack when he saw,” she told him. “He’s  _ so _ old-fashioned sometimes. You treating my auntie like a queen?”

“Always.”

“Hmm, good.” She hugged him tight and whispered, “Still going forward with your plan?”

A nervous tick ran through him, but Jon nodded. “Yeah. I’m asking her on Halloween.”

Rhaenys winked as they broke apart. “Where are my precious cat babies?”

From down the hall Viserion cried in question.

“Come here, sweet Vissy!”

Jon helped Dany settle their guests in rooms upstairs, caught up with them over a quick cup of coffee, then grabbed his coat.

“I’ll see you tonight,” Jon told them as he kissed Dany’s forehead. “Stark family dinner night.”

“Have fun,” Dany said. “We’re going to cuddle some cats and marathon that baking show.”

Jon left them arguing over which season had been the best, and what new things they might bake this year. It was a short drive across town to Winterfell. Patches of dirty snow and slush lined the roads, a sharp wind whipped his jeep around. His nerves were on fire.

Rhaenys and Aegon already knew, and Robb, too, but nobody else would until tonight. 

_ It’ll be fine, you’ve got a plan. Nana won’t say no. And Dany… _

Jon swallowed as he parked behind Uncle Ned’s truck. In all the scenarios he’d pictured, Dany had never said no to him. Her smiles had been different in each imagining, but always wide and gorgeous and happy. His uncle greeted him in the kitchen, rolling his eyes as his wife and Lyanna argued at the stove.

“I can manage to stir a  _ sauce _ ,” Lyanna was insisting, but Catelyn only snorted.

“You burned  _ water _ not two weeks ago.” 

Jon pulled his coat off and hung it on the back of a barstool. “Is Nana around?”

“In her room, I think.”

“Thanks.”

Back in the entrance hall, the rest of his family was arriving. Robb and his new girlfriend, Talisa. Sansa home from school. Uncle Benjen and Uncle Brandon already with a whiskey in hand, too. Nana Lyarra was in the mix, hugging and kissing everyone in sight.

“Jonny boy!” 

Uncle Brandon pulled him into a lift-hug, his feet coming clean off the ground. Jon grimaced and waited to be put down. Nana grabbed him next, but she didn’t hug him.

“Hello, Jon.”

Canyons were carved into Nana’s face. Each year her wisdom and smiles deepened their pathways. As a boy, Jon had adored tracing them with his fingers while he curled up on her lap to listen to another wild story of her past. Today, her smile turned those deep canyons to thin shadows on her face. With one glance and no words, Nana Lyarra hooked him by the elbow and led him away from the rest of their pack.

“I-I wanted to ask—”

“Hush, boy, I know that look in your eyes.” 

She dragged him into another corridor of Winterfell’s expansive floor plan, back and back to the suite Uncle Ned had renovated just for her use. Jon took a seat in her sitting room, as she ambled about by the fireplace.

“Well? Go on, Jon. I think I know where this is going, but you’ll ask like an adult or not at all.”

The sternness of her voice made him want to squirm, but Jon restrained himself. He gave one little fidget of his foot before steeling himself.

“I wanted to ask—well, I plan to ask—” He stammered to a halt as she poured tea in the corner, glancing at him sharply when he paused. Jon took a moment to recall his long practiced pitch. “I’m going to ask Dany to marry me on Halloween. It’s our favorite holiday, the day we met.” Jon swallowed as she dolled sugar into the mugs, watching him carefully. “We’re young, I know. I’m sure Mom will berate me six ways to Australia and back about that, but I love her. She loves me. I’ve never been more sure of anything as I am of her—of us.”

She nodded and carried the tea over to him. The boiling mug she shoved into his hand seared his palm. He took a sip to steady his nerves before he asked the part he dreaded. The most damning thing of his entire plan.

“I don’t have the money for a ring,” Jon said, and he was glad to hear no tremor in his voice like there had been when he’d recited his speech to himself in the shower that morning. “I wanted to ask you for a loan, about two thousand dollars. I’ve already got a payment plan outlined, so—”

“Drink your tea, Jon, then follow me.”

She carried her own mug into her adjacent bedroom. Bewildered, Jon went to set his scalding mug aside, then jumped at Nana’s voice.

“I said  _ drink _ , Jonathan.”

He chugged down the burning tea, eyes watering. She was digging through her dresser when he joined her in her bedroom, humming as she pulled out socks and bras and a wooden box carved into the shape of a wolf head.

“Nana, I know it’s a lot to ask, but—”

She shushed him again, then pointed to the end of her mussed up bed. “Sit.”

Jon sat, fighting the urge to twist his hands together. He settled for flexing his fingers to the tempo of his heartbeat. Her refusal was his expectation. Without a loan, he’d have to wait another six months, if not a year. At just shy of twenty, he’d been unable to find any bank to give him a loan, or a credit card that would accept his application. Between his college courses and his grimy part-time job at the cemetery, Jon made just enough to cover tuition and his jeep. An engagement ring was too far out of reach.

_ Dany won’t care about a ring. _

She’d said as much when they’d discussed all the hypothetical futures between them. But still, he longed to give her a physical reminder of their promise and commitment. To have a ring to look back on in forty or fifty years. A ring with its own story to tell their grandchildren, perhaps  _ great- _ grandchildren.

Asking Nana Lyarra for a loan had been a long shot, but he’d doubted any of his uncles or his aunt or his  _ mother _ would have taken him seriously. 

“Now, it might be too large,” Nana Lyarra said as she rummaged through her wolf head box. “Dany is such a tiny thing, but—aha, here it is. I’ve known for a long time I’d give this to you someday. Tosh on Robb being older, you were always the sweetheart. Moment I saw you and Dany together, I knew. Here.”

She set a worn leather ring box in his hand. Jon’s mouth fell open as he peered down at the silver ring, sapphires set in the center with tiny amethysts curved in a heart around them. When he looked up, Lyarra was smiling. Every canyon-crevasse on her face seemed to glow.

“This was my engagement ring. And Rickard’s mother’s before that, and her mother, and so on. A Stark family heirloom. I always hoped your mother might wear it one day.” Lyarra rolled her eyes. “But you know how that ended up.”

Jon let out a squeaky laugh of relief. His mother was a splendid parent, all he could have asked for and more, but she’d never been the type to settle down with a spouse as a housewife. Single motherhood had suited her much better.

“Nana, this is too much—”

“Nonsense. You’re a Stark, and Dany will be, too, soon enough.” She cupped his face between her wrinkled hands. “Take it. Pass it on to one of your children when they’re ready to take the same step you’re embarking on.”

She let him go, and Jon examined the ring once more. The sapphires were shaped to resemble roses, the amethysts still vibrant. Just looking at it reminded him of Dany.

“It’ll certainly bring out the color of her eyes.”

“That’s a good lad.” Nana shut the ring box and tucked it into his shirt pocket. “All I ask is a detailed accounting of your proposal, understand? No money or nonsense. And perhaps a great-grandkid or two.”

“Probably four or five,” Jon told her, blushing. “We want a big family when we start one.”

She pulled him back to his feet and took his face in her hands again, examining him. Jon shifted under the intense scrutiny; her fingers brushing over the light scruffy patches he was trying to grow into a beard, her eyes taking in his own. He was stunned to see tears reflected back at him.

“I always thought my own children grew up too fast, yet you boys seemed to grow even faster. My little BonBon, off to start his own family.”

He flushed at the childhood nickname Sansa had given him. “ _ Nana _ , it’s not such a big deal.”

“You hush and let me reminiscence, boy, or I’ll pluck the ring right out of your pocket.”

“What ring?”

They turned to find Lyanna framed in the doorway, some sort of sauce splattered on her shirt and cheek. Jon stepped away from his grandmother and scratched the back of his head. Lyanna looked from him to Lyarra and back.

“What ring?” she asked again.

“The old Stark one you could never be bothered to care about,” Nana said sharply. She swiped a patch of sauce off Lyanna’s cheek. “What’s this you’ve exploded now?”

“Don’t change the subject to my lackadaisical cooking skills.” Lyanna squinted at her mother and son. “What ring, Jon?”

Before Nana could try to deflect again, Jon steadied himself with his head high and shoulders strong.

“Nana’s engagement ring. I’m going to ask Dany to marry me.”

“You’re—Jon, that’s… you’re only nineteen.”

“I’ll be twenty in a few weeks,” he reminded her. “And, if she says yes, I’ll be almost twenty-one when we marry. We already decided we’d have a Halloween wedding whenever we get married. Halloween’s our day.”

Lyanna’s lips quirked in a strange sort of smile—both amused and sad. She touched his cheek much like her mother had, scratching her nails over his patches of scruff.

“She will.” Her voice trembled as she exhaled, her eyes bright with delight and melancholy. “Of course, Dany will. You and her… it won’t be easy, though, Jon. Marriage changes so much.”

“It doesn’t have to,” Jon said. “We’ve talked about it a lot. And, really, we’ve already navigated living together. We promised to support and love one another, to communicate. To be together in every way years ago. Marriage just makes it legal, really.”

“Yes, it does,” Lyanna agreed, though she seemed reluctant to do so. “But, Jon—and please, don’t take this the wrong way—but you  _ are _ young. So young. You’ve got so much growing and changing still to do. I know nineteen—twenty,” she amended, “feels like the height of adulthood, that you’ve reached the pinnacle of who you are, but you haven’t. Even five years from now, you’ll look back at yourself and realize just how much you still have to learn and grow; how much you’ve changed. I just want you to be sure—”

“We’ll do it together,” Jon said, and he bristled as she tried to touch his cheek again. “Same as we have for three years. What’s another five? Or ten or twenty or fifty. Dany’s my world, Mama. She’s the safety and love and support I come home to, and I’m that for her, too. Can’t you just be  _ happy _ for us?”

His mother sighed. “Darling, of course I am. Your happiness means everything to me, but I want to make sure you’re prepared for this. Marriage is a big step.”

Jon met her gaze without flinching or blushing. “I’ve never been more sure of anything, Mom.”

Lyanna nodded, then hugged him tight. After a quick look over of the ring, Jon had her approval.

“Be kind and patient with one another,” she told him. And to make sure he was truly listening, Lyanna took his head between her hands and jerked him down to her eye level. “Trust and communication, Jon. Love is just one step of a marriage.”

“Okay, I’ll remember.”

“Good.”

* * *

Jon was numb with success when he returned to Dragonstone later that night. The old grandfather clock they’d repaired years before chimed in midnight as he locked the front door behind himself. Nothing stirred. Their cats were undoubtedly basking in cuddles. Dany had an earlier day tomorrow, and Aegon and Rhaenys would be exhausted after their day of travel. He made his way upstairs as quiet as a shadow, felt the tug of his jeans over the ring’s box in his pocket. 

Every time he felt it, the reality settled in further. His mother’s worried face hurried up the dark stairs after him, reminding him of his youth.

“So what if we’re young?” he muttered to himself. “She was my age when she had me.”

The door next to the landing creaked open. “Wanna repeat that for the class?”

Viserion mewled and darted out of Rhaenys’s guest room to greet him. Jon scooped him up and laughed as their sweetest boy began to rub his head on Jon’s face. The flame-point tabby had become very fond of his face ever since he’d started working on his beard.

“So?” Rhaenys glanced down the hall toward the master bedroom, then back to him. “Did you get the loan or not, Jonny boy?”

“Better.” Jon twisted Viserion to his left arm and dug the ring box out. “Nana gave me this. Old family heirloom. It’s been passed down from Stark bride to Stark bride for a long time.”

Rhaenys snatched it from his hand and popped it open. At once, her face lit up.

“Jon, it’s  _ perfect _ .”

She pulled it out and tried it on, giggling when the ring caught on her knuckle.

“Might even fit her okay, this.” Rhaenys tugged it off and examined the stones in the hallway light. She whistled softly. “Right sight, that is. So, Halloween is on?”

“Earlier in the day, so we don’t miss the kids.”

She winked at him and took Viserion from his arm. At once, the cat cuddled up like a baby being cradled, purring and pawing at her hand.

“Come on, Vissy. Bedtime.”

Viserion blinked at him arrogantly, twitching his tail as if to say, “Look, human, this could have been you.”

Jon headed further down the hall to the master bedroom, but he was stopped once again at Aegon’s door.

“Yeah?”

Jon nodded and rolled his eyes. “At this rate, you two are going to make her more suspicious than not.”

Aegon made a very unflattering noise with his mouth and flipped him off.

“Night.”

By the time Jon reached their bedroom, Dany was awake, the bedside lamp already on. Her hair was mussed from sleep, eyes bleary.

“What’s happening?”

“Nothing, love. Just your family being nosy.” Jon leaned down and kissed her crinkled brow, then the top of her silver-gold head. “Go back to sleep. I’ll just be a few minutes.”

Dany lay back down, turning the light off as he shuffled into the master bath to brush his teeth and wash his face. He stripped out of his clothes and joined her under the heap of blankets. When a pair of tiny feet began to make biscuits on his leg, Jon chuckled.

“I see someone’s hiding in the blankets again.”

Dany grumbled, then rolled over into his chest. “Drogon’s my big baby,” she muttered against his skin. “Someone had to keep me warm while you were away.”

Jon wrapped his arm around her waist and pulled her close. “Well, I was getting a few things in order.”

“You gonna ask me to marry you, Jon Stark?”

Somehow, Jon wasn’t surprised at all. “Which one of them told you?”

“Both, kind of. I overheard them when I was coming back from the bathroom during our binge marathon earlier.” Dany kissed his chest. “I don’t suppose I can get my proposal early?”

Jon snorted. “Not a chance, love.”

* * *

Despite a full load of classes and a part-time job, Jon found it almost impossible to keep Dany distracted as Halloween approached. Even Rhaenys and Aegon’s visit was little help. Try as they might, Dany was focused on Jon. What he was doing, where he was going, if he had any  _ interesting _ plans on any given day.

“Anything exciting today, lover boy?”

“No, just dinner with you three… again.”

But Dany still asked four times a day. He found her raiding his portion of their closet, too, under the guise of missing a quarter, but Jon wasn’t fooled.

“Do you really think I’d just leave an engagement ring lying around, Daenerys?”

“You might,” she insisted, eyes sparkling mischievously. “If you knew I’d put it on without any prompting.”

“But maybe I’d rather prompt you,” Jon teased. “Officially. With big fireworks and a serenade.”

Dany only laughed and shook her head, then continued to search the house and spring questions on him. She seemed to think if she caught him in an awkward moment he’d yelp out the answer she was seeking. Half asleep, while he was in the shower, even once when they had a quick fuck in the kitchen while Rhaenys and Aegon were arguing about pizza topppings in the other room.

By Halloween morning, Jon had passed right over nervousness and moved into relief. In less than ten hours, he’d be asking Dany to marry him. No more waking up in a panicky sweat in the middle of the night--only to be instantly soothed by finding her pulling out his pockets from that particular day’s outfit.

“ _ Like a virgin! _ ”

Jon grimaced and rolled over to face the door to the master bath. It was cracked open, steam gushing out as Dany’s voice was carried with it. He followed her song inside and climb into the shower stall with her.

“Are you ever going to let me live that one down?”

“Jon,” Dany said, as she soaped her hair up, “it’s a Halloween  _ tradition _ .”

“My mother and uncle getting drunk and embarrassing me with  _ that song— _ ”

“Is tradition, Jonathan Stark.”

Dany silenced him with a kiss, then soaped up his hair, too.

* * *

She left for work after breakfast, Jon dropping her off just as they did every Thursday, but he didn’t head for his classes afterward. Today he would fake sick. Texting a few classmates preemptively to let them he’d be out and asking for access to that day’s notes and lessons. But they already knew the truth.

It was Halloween. The day that continued to mean something new every year--the day he would move from boyfriend to fiance.

_ Please say yes, Dany _ .

Despite her persist searching and teasing, a naggle of doubt still lingered. Perhaps she wouldn’t like his proposal. Maybe she’d tell him yes, but not yet. To try again. Find something more  _ her _ .

Nervous shivers racked his body as he drove over to Winterfell to get set up. Finding his mother, aunt, and grandmother waiting came as no surprise. He’d had to ask their permission to use the wood in the backyard.

“There’s my boy. You nervous?”

Jon shrugged and made a horrible noise from the back of his throat. Maybe a grunt. Or a squeak. A hybrid of the two, or something altogether new.

Lyanna only laughed at him and kissed his cheek. “Relax, Jon. It’s normal to be nervous for big life changes.”

“I wasn’t earlier,” he admitted. “Then again, I was really nervous last night. It’s not like she doesn’t already know what’s going on—”

“You  _ told _ her?” Aunt Cat looked distraught at the news. “But, dear, the surprise of a proposal—”

“ _ I _ didn’t tell her.” Jon bristled at his aunt’s gaze. “What? I didn’t. She overheard Rhaenys and Aegon talking about it the day they flew in. They’re helping me to get her here.”

Some of his aunt’s sternness left her, but she remained pinched and frowny. She’d never exactly been rude or unkind to him, but Jon had always gotten the impression that she somehow didn’t approve. Like he was at fault for her disagreements with Lyanna.

“Well, good.” His mother gave Catelyn a hard glare and turned him away into the kitchen. “I suppose she’s been bugging you all week?”

“Think she searched every corner of the house for the ring,” Jon said with a laugh. “I’ve had it taped to the underside of my Jeep’s driver seat since the day after I got it.”

“Good lad.” Lyanna offered him a tray of Halloween cookies decorated as bats and witches and pumpkins. “Eat up. And no, I didn’t have a hand in their making so they’re perfectly safe. If you need us, just shout.”

Jon was left alone at the kitchen island. He scooped up a bat cookie and shoved it into his mouth to try to calm himself. Nothing had ever left him so weak with nerves. Not his first state team tryout or tournament. Even his first time with Dany had been half of what he felt right now. Like his insides were melting and hardening and fighting to get out to strangle him.

He ate half a dozen cookies, then steeled himself.

_ Dany loves me. She’ll say yes. She’s been dying to say yes and wear this ring all week. _

Jon headed back out to his Jeep and got to work.

* * *

Golden light filled the wood as the sun began its descent behind him. All the wood seemed to come to life as Jon triple-checked his designs. Every petal was perfect, glowing beautiful as the red and orange and yellow leaves reflected the sunlight down onto the portrait he’d created in the weirwood grove.

He just had time to run back to his Jeep and pull the ring box free when Aegon texted him that they were on their way.

Jon trembled with nerves as he took his position just inside the pathway to the weirwood, careful not to kick up all the work he’d done. He heard them before he saw them. 

“Rhae, give it up,” Dany’s voice was saying. “I  _ know _ why we’re here. It’s really no secret. You don’t want to see a weirwood anymore than I want to live in a dumpster.”

“But we do,” Rhaenys insisted. “All big and, uh, white? Blue leaves?”

Dany snorted. “Red. Jon? You should have picked better wingmen!”

He flushed as her teasing shout, and stepped out of his hiding spot to intercept her. Dany was pink-cheeked and beautiful. They hadn’t even gone back to Dragonstone like Jon had expected of them. She was still in her coffee shop apron, her blouse stained with coffee and milk and what seemed to be powdered sugar. Smudges of cocoa dotted her nose and cheeks. 

Every nerve in his body eased just at the sight of her.

“Hi.”

“Hello, lover boy.” She beamed and tugged her scarf up higher to cover her neck. “Do I get my surprise now?”

Jon caught her hand just as it dived for the obvious bulge in his front pocket. “Not so quick, love. I’ve got a sort of journey for us first.”

Dany pouted at him, but her eyes were sparkling. She wove her fingers through his and followed him into the wood, just the two of them.

“Ah, stop pouting. Don’t you want to see what I’ve got set up for you?”

“I suppose.” Dany laughed when he tickled her side, then eased his arm around her as they walked. “Very smooth, Jon Stark.”

“Aye, I’ve had a lot of practice.”

Dany’s footsteps faltered as the roses he’d lined the path with came into sight. They were winter roses, vibrant and deep blue, vivid against the crunchy crush of leaves underfoot. She gazed at him in wonder.

“Jon, what—”

“You’ll see.”

They followed the rose lined trail deeper into the wood, and the first opening, the blue ballooned out to one side, an intricate and exact design of deep blue and white and pale blue petals, including a few bursts of red and orange leaves.

“Jon, is that—” Dany laughed and covered her mouth. “Is that a petal picture of your foot caught in that old bear trap?”

He grinned sheepishly. “Yeah, the night we met.” Jon let her gaze at it for a moment, pride bursting in his chest that his petal art was good enough for her to recognize the scene. “And this was our first kiss. Sorta. It’s hard to work with petals and leaves.”

They stopped at the next scattering of petals. Of them a few years before, depicted in leaves and rose petals, sitting on that same spot, sharing their first kiss.

“Oh, _ Jon _ .” Dany was laughing and crying as she kneeled down for a closer look. “You made these?”

“Aye, I wanted to show our story, you know. The memories I love best of you and us.”

She kissed him when she stood back up, then eagerly pulled him along the path toward the weirwood. Every dozen feet he’s created another work of petal art. Of them mini-golfing with little twig clubs. Another of a dragon for Dany’s Dungeons and Dragons fueled joy. Each of their cats had their own petal art. There were jack-o-lanterns and mugs of hot coffee, even the first pie they’d made together last Christmas. She smiled and laughed and kissed him as they journeyed closer to the tree.

“You did  _ not _ make this Gollum.”

Jon kissed her smile. “You bet I did. I couldn’t very well depict us fucking for the first time, could I?”

Dany laughed until her face turned red. She clutched his jacket and held him close until her giggles subsided. When she nuzzled her face into the curve of his neck, Jon relaxed entirely. They were perfectly imperfect together. How could he have ever been afraid of what he already knew?

“I love you, Jon Stark.”

He kissed the top of her head. “Come on, there’s one more.”

In the weirwood grove, Jon had used every available inch of forest floor. He’d filled more trash bags than he could count with rose stems, but the result was worth it. For inside the clearing, he’d created a huge mural of Dany herself, smiling in her favorite sweater under a fiery arched sign that read Dragonstone with the old house clumsily outlined behind her.

Jon wrapped his arms around her from behind, resting his chin on her shoulder as she gazed down at her likeness.

“Jon, you made me so beautiful,” Dany muttered in a choked voice. “And here I am, showing up to all this in my work apron, covered in stains and sugar and—”

“And I want to marry you anyway. Just as you are.” Jon dug the ring box from his jean pocket and brought it out in front of her. “As much as I love the Dany made of flower petals, it’s the one standing here with me covered in cocoa and stains and warm with laughter and love, that I’m asking to marry me.”

“Jon—”

He popped the ring box open so that she could see it. Sapphires and amethysts glittered in the setting sunlight, under the canopy of red and golden leaves.

“How could you afford—”

“It was my grandmother’s engagement ring,” Jon explained as he plucked the delicate silver band from the box. “And my great-grandmother’s before her. It’s been in the Stark family for a long time.”

“Jon, I can’t—”

“You can, if you want.” Jon set it gently in her open palm. “Nana wanted to give it to my mother, but she never married so she gave it to me to give to whomever I decide to share my life and heart with. And that’s you.”

Dany sniffled and looked at the ring. “Well? Are you going to ask or am I going to have to propose to myself?”

“Oh! Right, right, uh.” Jon moved to get down on a knee, but Dany caught his arms and kept him upright. “But—”

“This is just fine. Right here, heart to heart.” She stepped further into him, until their chests were pressed close, toasty and warm with their layers of jackets and shirts. “Okay, I-I’m ready.”

“Daenerys Targaryen, will you marry me, Jon Stark, right here in the weirwood grove next Halloween?”

Her smile spread slow and wide and more radiant than the sun. Her eyes sparkled just like the amethysts on the ring.

“Yes, I will.”

Jon slid the ring on her finger, laughing when it was just slightly too large, the gems doing their best to twist around to the underside.

“We’ll have to get it adjusted,” Dany said, still beaming. “I love you, you silly romantic.”

“I’m not—”

From the distant house, a roar of sound like a loud speaker being turned on shrieked over the forest. Birds rose in a huge, fearful wave and scattered to the clouds. They both startled.

“What—”

“Oh,  _ gods _ , I bet it’s—”

And it was. Uncle Brandon’s voice bellowed in the distance, just as the familiar music started up.

“Did you ask her yet or not, Jonny boy? And I hope this ain’t still true, you two living together and all that.”

‘Like a Virgin’ echoed over the entire wood, loud and poppy and intermingled with Uncle Brandon’s panting voice as he was chased about.

“Ah, come on, Lya, I’m only teasing!”

“You stop embarrassing my son and daughter-in-law or I’ll—”

“ _ Ouch! _ ”

The microphone gave a short angry scream as it hit something. Everything went silent. Dany looked up at him, then started laughing.

“I did warn you that they’re a lot.”

“Yes, and I can’t wait to be one of them,” Dany agreed. “But right now, we need to get changed for some trick-or-treaters. Are you ready, Jack Skellington?”

“Why yes, I am, Sally.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Not sure when I'll get the next part up. I may be expanding on it a bit, or leaving most of it where it's at. We shall see!
> 
> Either way, next Halloween is honeymoon time o.o


	5. Fifth Halloween

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Some more Halloween happenings, year five is here!
> 
> Enjoy!

They married before the weirwood at midday on Halloween. Dany wore a lacey black dress she and Jon’s grandmother had sewn themselves. Jon matched in a black suit, the tie a pale, but lively orange. Together, they spoke their vows as the Starks and Targaryens and their friends looked on.

Dany was all smiles afterward. Celebrating on the Starks’ expansive back deck, walking arm in arm with Jon as they spoke with Rhaegar and his uncles and Missandei and Irri. Every moment and laugh and smudge of cake and frosting on their faces was perfect.

Her honeymoon, however, went against all of her expectations. 

They packed their luggage in Jon’s old jeep the following morning before heading north into Vermont and the mountains. Jon drove them through the congestion around the city, finally pulling off at the first flashing sign warning all drivers to put their chains on.

“Your turn, love,” he said. 

They dug the tire chains from the back and put them on. He kissed her neck as they returned to the driver’s side door. Dany shivered as he pressed close, his intentions as obvious as his erection.

“Jon Stark-Targaryen, we are not fucking against your jeep on a snowy, cold shoulder where,” Dany checked the road, “four truckers are doing the same as us.”

“Frisking each other?” Jon nipped her earlobe, gave it a rough, teasing suck.

“Putting chains on their tires to reach their destination.” Dany snatched the keys from were he’d hooked them onto his belt. “Down, boy. We’ll try this new voyeurism interest of yours when it’s warmer out.”

Jon gave a gruff grunt of surprise. “That a promise?”

“Get in the passenger seat and maybe one day you’ll find out.”

He laughed and did as she said. Dany pulled back out onto the road, easing the jeep up into the mountains toward their honeymoon destination. Instead of spending extravagant money and missing a week of their semester, they’d settled for a long weekend at the Stark family’s old cabin off Lake Champlain.

_ I’m a Stark now, a Stark-Targaryen. Mr. and Mrs. Stark-Targaryen. _

She smiled over at Jon as they trudged along the snow-coated road.

“What?” He squinted at her in the light of his phone screen.

“Nothing,  _ husband _ , just excited to get where we’re going.”

His grin was like starlight. “Me, too.”

Jon leaned over and kissed her cheek. “Drive slow, I’m going to take a video for Mom.”

He aimed his phone at the windshield, catching the light snowfall, the crust of snow upon the roadway, the icy crystals glinting on the trees like dollops of creamy frosting. They cruised through the forest, chatting and laughing for the video, but on their last curve, Jon gave a shout.

“Stop!”

Dany slammed the brakes, the jeep heaving to a thunderous stop. Outside, she saw nothing but snow and forest, the occasional patch of pale sunlight.

“Jon, what—”

He was already climbing out, his phone left in his seat, the video still recording. She put the hazards on and the jeep in park, and followed him.

“Jon?”

Her husband was crouched down a dozen feet in front of the jeep.

“Shh, hi, it’s okay.” He offered his hand to a little heap of snow.

Dany clutched her coat tighter and approached him. “Jon, what it is?  _ Oh! _ ”

A small pup hopped from the heap, his shaggy fur as white as snow. Bright red eyes peered up at Jon, tail wagging.

“That’s it, hi. You’re a cutie, aren’t you?”

The pup eagerly accepted Jon’s pets, wobbling on unsteady legs. Dany kneeled beside them and examined the heap he’d emerged from. It was a soggy, collapsed cardboard box, the watery letters spelling out ‘FREE’ on one flap. Jon had already scooped the pup up into his arms and tucked it into his coat.

“He’s freezing, Dany.” Jon frowned down at the little wriggly bulge, laughing as a tiny tongue flicked out to lick at his beard. 

Dany peered down into the toasty nest Jon had made. Those odd red eyes peered up at her, inquisitive and precious.

“An albino,” she said, offering her hand that the pup was happy to lick. “Someone must have just  _ abandoned _ him. You poor sweetie. Come on, let’s get you warm.”

They returned to the jeep, turning the heat up and pulling over onto the narrow shoulder. The pup stayed tucked in Jon’s coat, but after ten minutes, his little head emerged, tongue lolling happily.

“Can’t be more than, what? Four, maybe five weeks?”

“He must be starving,” Dany fretted as she twisted around to dig through their food. “Is he too young for lunch meat?”

“Better than nothing until we can find something for a puppy,” Jon said as she opened the container and tore off a tiny strip of ham. 

The pup gobbled it up at once, licking her hand and nosing at the container.

“Guess that’s answer enough,” Dany said with a laugh. “Here, sweetheart, have a bit more. We’ve got water, too.”

They stopped him after a dozen little pieces, made a mess of helping him drink some water, and then returned to the road. Jon snuggled with their new tiny companion, stroking his cheeks and ears and chin. Even with her eyes on the road, Dany could tell Jon was already in love. He’d always wanted a dog, but never had the opportunity for one.

By the time they stopped an hour later at a grocery store for puppy formula, Jon had named him.

“Come on, Ghost,” he said, zipping the little guy up in his coat. “We’ll smuggle you inside. Shh!”

He jogged toward the automatic doors, little Ghost squeaky howling from under his coat. Dany laughed and followed. To her relief, the employees were as smitten with Ghost as Jon was. They left the store with everything a new dog owner might need, from a new red collar and leash to puppy pads and a bottle for formula.

“You do realize Rhaegal is going to  _ hate _ him, don’t you? He’s going to be so jealous to have to share your cuddles now.”

Jon’s face fell as he quickly covered Ghost’s perky little ears. “You can’t say those things around such tiny ears, Dany!”

“He’s not going to stay tiny for long,” Dany reminded him. They’d agreed that Ghost was definitely part Alaskan Malamute, if not wolf. “Four months and that tiny pup will be as big as me.”

“And a growing boy needs lots of love and pets,” Jon said. “Isn’t that right, boy?”

Ghost turned his happy little face to her, tongue lolling in contentment as Jon scratched his cheek.

He really was adorable.

“Fine, but you’re introducing him to the cats.”

“They’ll love him.”

* * *

In the seven years since Dany had found her trio of kittens in a New York subway car, she’d never seen them so fierce and willful and  _ rude _ . The moment they walked through the door four days later, Drogon came yowl-running down the stairs, then hissed and screamed at the sight of the pale pup in Jon’s arms.

“Hi, sweetie.” Dany kneeled down to pick him up, but he swatted at her arm and hissed again. “Drogon, be  _ nice _ . Ghost is just a baby.”

But her fiercest boy was not convinced. He gave her a resentful look and trotted back upstairs, still screaming. 

“I’m sure the other two will be better,” Jon said to Ghost. “Uncle Drogon likes to put on the dramatics, but he’ll love you. Promise.”

Viserion, however, would not come downstairs. He stayed on the landing halfway up the stairs, peering down at them from between the bars. His golden eyes were fixed on Ghost, who was doing his best to howl softly at Jon’s encouragement. When Dany went to pet him, he followed Drogon out of sight.

“That’s strike two,” Dany told him.

Jon grimaced. “Rhaegal then.”

But Rhaegal was nowhere to be found. They checked all over the house, from the kitchen cabinets he liked to open to under each bed, even behind the toilets where he sometimes curled up. 

“Text my mom,” Jon said. “We’ll check the storage room. She sent us a picture of him yesterday.”

Lyanna responded almost at once, assuring Dany that Rhaegal had indeed been in the house just that morning when she’d come over to check on the cats.

_ Dany: He’s hiding somewhere, I guess. Maybe Drogon and Viserion sent him a memo about Jon’s new friend. _

Before Lyanna could ask, Dany sent along a picture she’d taken earlier that morning before they’d left the cabin. It was of Jon and Ghost, cuddled up asleep on the bed.

_ Lyanna: Did you go on a honeymoon or dog shopping? _

_ Dany: We became unintentional puppy parents for Halloween. _

_Lyanna: At least he’s cute. The puppy, not my son. Jon’s a beast._

Dany smiled. It was a sweet picture, and Ghost had proven to be a wonderful little pup so far.

“Nothing!” Jon hollered from upstairs. “Drogon, don’t— _ ouch! _ ”

Several thumps and loud hisses hurried down the stairs. Drogon came sprinting past, meowing and yowling as he went.

Jon appeared a moment later, Ghost in his arms, sucking at a cut on his thumb.

“He bit me!”

Dany scowled. “Drogon, that’s a bad boy!”

But he was nowhere to be found either.

Jon sighed. “Let’s go unpack. They’ll come out eventually.”

* * *

They were still catless the next morning. Ghost was as happy as could be exploring his new home, sniffing and chewing everything he could find. But Dany was beside herself. Some cats were skittish, it was true, but her trio had always been overly friendly with visitors. They’d even come out to play when Robb had stopped by with his dog over the summer.

“I can’t believe they’re acting like this,” Dany said over their morning coffee.

Jon was still in bed beside her, sipping his mug and using his legs to keep Ghost from falling off the bed.

“Give them time, love.”

“He’s just a tiny puppy. The perfect size for them to assert dominance or whatever,” Dany said. She took another sip and bristled. “If they would just give him a chance—”

Jon’s laughter cut her off. “Your mama’s already so protective of you, isn’t she, Ghostie?”

“I’m—” Dany glared at her husband, flustered. “Is it wrong to want all of our boys to get along?”

“Our boys,” Jon said with a grin.

“Yes,” Dany said, hugging her mug to her chest. “They’re my babies, and Ghost is precious.”

Jon leaned over and kissed her cheek. “Not as precious as you.”

She scoffed and went back to her coffee as Ghost wrestled with Jon’s wiggling foot under the blankets. It was a few moments before they heard it—claws scratching at their bedroom door. Jon grinned and got out of bed.

“See? I told you.”

Rhaegal cried in worry when the door opened. Like his brothers, he was used to the door being propped open most nights, so he could come and go as he pleased. Jon scooped him up and kissed his forehead. 

“There’s our sweet boy,” he cooed. “You won’t be mean like your brothers, will you?”

He answered with a sleepy meow, blinking slowly like he’d just woken from a long slumber. Jon set him on Dany’s lap, purring.

“Hi, my sweet. Were you sleeping good?”

Ghost gave a squeaky little bark from the end of the bed. Rhaegal tensed, his back arching, eyes going wide. Jon grabbed the puppy before either could approach the other.

“It’s okay, Rhae, this is Ghost. He’s a big, soft baby,” Jon said, sitting down beside her again and holding Ghost closer for Rhaegal to smell. “He’s going to live with us now, okay?”

Their brown tabby stared from Jon to the albino pup, his green eyes round.

“Merrrroow?”

“Yes, he’s your new brother.”

Rhaegal gave Ghost a tentative sniff, then swatted him repeatedly on the head. Ghost took it in stride, tongue lolling, so cute Dany thought she might combust from looking at his fluffy little face.

They both held their breath as Rhaegal lowered his paw, considering. Then he licked Ghost’s forehead, and began to give him a very aggressive bath.

“Base hit,” Jon said.

“The easiest of the three, unfortunately,” Dany reminded him. “Let’s hope they’re better when we decide to have a baby.”

“Twenty bucks says they’re worse.”

“You’re on.”

Jon raised his mug, and she clinked hers against his.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sooo, two more left. Most of the sixth one is written, but the seventh hasn't even been started. My goals to get both out by the end of the year. Actually, my general plan is to get this, The Dragons' Song, and (maybe) Embers done by the end of the year. Fat chance, perhaps, buuuut I'll try :D
> 
> As always, thank you for all the wonderful reviews and comments!


	6. Sixth Halloween

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This one's short, but sweet. 
> 
> Enjoy! :)

Every blink was another cottonball pushed into his face, collecting under his skin like a burning, itching rash. Jon grimaced and coughed as their morning alarm went off. Normally, he was already in the shower, warming it up for Dany to join him before their internship at the local veterinary office.

Hot panting breaths hit the back of his neck, then a soft whine as Ghost began to lick him.

“Go ‘way.”

Jon buried his face in his pillow and curled into a ball.

“Love?” Dany’s hand squeezed his shoulder. “Still not feeling good?”

“Wor’.”

Her palm was like an iceberg against his forehead.

“You’re burning up.”

The bed dipped as she climbed out of it. From the bathroom, he could hear her rummaging around in their medicine cabinet. He tried to sit up, but was forced back down by his wife and their elephant of a dog. Ghost had grown exponentially since last year just as Dany had predicted. Their tiny pup was now as tall as Jon when he stood on his hind legs. A year old now, and (hopefully) done growing.

“Here, take these.” Dany helped him sip some water and down several pills. “I’ll call the office so they know it’s just me today.”

“But the surgery—”

“Jon, no.”

He shivered violently when he tried to get out of bed, was so weak that Dany easily overpowered him and got him back under the blankets. Ghost draped himself over Jon’s legs to lock him in place.

“We’ll be fine for the amputation. You rest.”

She pressed a cold kiss to his forehead and headed into the bathroom. He dozed off and on, waking to her sweet whispered goodbyes, then to Drogon’s demanding meows for attention, then a third time to all three cats cuddled up against Ghost’s furry belly beside him. His fever came and went, but Dany’s texts woke him every two hours with reminders to take more medicine, to drink water and go to the bathroom.

He woke once more in the afternoon to the squeak of the window next to his side of the bed opening. Dany smiled down at him and felt his forehead.

“You look awful.”

“Tha’s ru’e.”

“And true,” Dany said as she sat on the edge of the bed. “Have you been drinking the water I left? I know you didn’t eat the soup.”

She waved the thermo she’d left on the nightstand at him.

“No foo’.”

“You need to eat, Jon.” Dany cleaned up his tissues and empty cups. “I’ll warm up some chicken noodle instead, how’s that?”

“Kay.”

A steaming bowl of soup was forced down his throat when Dany returned. She sat with him and made sure he ate. After the first bite, he found he was quite hungry, though the heat of the soup made him woozy. 

“W’ere’s cos’ume?”

“Jon, you are  _ not _ handing out candy like this. You’ll get all those kids sick.”

He tried to argue, but Dany pressed a finger to his lips and shook her head. “No. You wouldn’t last ten minutes anyway. I’ll have Ghost with me. The kids will love him.”

But Ghost couldn’t dress up as the Mr. Potatohead to Dany’s Mrs. Potatohead with the cats in their tiny green alien costumes and Ghost as Slinky.

“We’ll manage just fine, love. Get some rest.”

She wouldn’t hear another word about it, and Jon couldn’t argue. Sleep claimed him once more.

* * *

“Trick or treat!”

Tommen had grown half a foot since Dany had seen him last year. She smiled under her Mrs. Potatohead nose, as she handed out candy to all the kids waiting.

“That’s an impressive Tony the Tiger costume,” she told him as she dropped a handful of candy into his bucket.

“I like your nose-face,” he said, then followed his group of friends to the haunted graveyard her and Jon had set up.

They’d done all sorts of things to get prepared this year—handcrafted paper mache gravestones, bought plastic tubs big enough for people to bob for apples. Last weekend they’d spent fourteen hours carving half a hundred pumpkins to light the path up to the front porch. All of their costumes had been hand-made, including the little green alien hats she’d tied around the cats’ heads. Ghost hurried after their latest group of kids, guiding them through the little haunted maze in Jon’s place.

“I see you’re missing the Stark half this year,” Mr. Lannister—Tyrion—said as he watched his nephew through the maze. “Trouble in haunted paradise?”

Dany pulled her big red nose mask off and laughed. “Hardly. He’s upstairs sick as a dog. Messed up all my elaborate plans for today.”

“Oh?”

She hesitated to say more, but unconsciously her big gloved hand drifted to her round potato stomach. Tyrion’s eyebrows rose.

“Ah, a little spud on the way, is it?”

Dany gave him a steely look and refused to nod, but she couldn’t hold back her smile for too long.

“Well, congratulations to my favorite old students. If you stay in town, perhaps I’ll get to teach the little spud when they’re old enough.”

“We’re planning to stay,” Dany said as Tommen and his friends made the final turn through the maze. “My brother renovated the old guest house for his practice while he was here. We’re thinking of turning it into an animal hospital, our own business. In a few years, once we’re ready.”

“Tommen will like that,” Tyrion said with a grin as his nephew returned. “He’s been collecting kittens by the dozen. Drives my sister mad.”

“But they’re just little babies, Uncle Tyrion!”

Tyrion frowned at his nephew. “Yes, well, we’ve got other houses to visit and the night isn’t getting any younger.”

Dany waved at them as she put her mask back on to greet their next group. Ghost took a seat beside her while the cats cried at the open window behind her. All three had been shoved into little alien costumes, and while Rhaegal and Viserion accepted their predicament with ease, Drogon did not.

“Rrraaarrrrraaaawwwwwooo!”

“Hush,” Dany scolded, swatting at the window screen when Drogon tried to climb it. “You’re adorable, get over it.”

Then she turned back to her next group.

“Trick or treat!”

* * *

Jon was still in bed when she hobbled upstairs hours later. Every pumpkin along the long driveway had been extinguished. All the leftover apples had been returned to the kitchen. The gate had been shut to deter any tricksters from pranking their old, Halloween-decorated house. 

Dany set her red-nose face mask on the dresser and worked her way out of her costume. It was a lot of work on her own. When they’d first begun to craft this year’s couple costume, Jon had helped her in and out of her Mrs. Potatohead spud. It was a huge bulbous wire-framed potato that zipped in the back. She pulled her bigs gloves off, then slid her arms through the armholes. The giant potato fell down her body until the top met her head. She crouched and wiggled until all of her limbs were inside, then twisted to work the zipper open.

Ghost was there to greet her when she pushed her head out of the stuffy interior.

“Hi, sweetie, here.”

She unstrapped Ghost’s Slinky costume from his front and back, then worked the aluminum foil coil they’d made for the middle off his body. He was a very good boy, standing entirely still as she worked him free.

“There we go,” Dany cooed, kissing his nose. “Go find your silly brothers, okay? I need to take theirs off, too.”

Ghost gave a soft woof and padded out of the room.

Dany peeled her white bodysuit off next, then her bra and panties. Jon didn’t so much as stir where he was curled up on his side in the middle of their bed. She sighed sadly, thinking of all the plans she’d had for this evening. Every element had been perfect.

Unfortunately, she hadn’t accounted for Jon getting sick.

Instead of teasing him with her nudity, Dany pulled her pajamas on and dug her present out of her purse.

“How are you feeling, love?”

He stirred when her hand touched his clammy forehead. Somehow, he looked worse than he had a few hours ago.

“Mmhrrrm.”

“More soup and medicine, I think. And some hot cocoa?”

Jon perked up at that, his tired eyes peeking open. His hair was a tangled slick mess of sweat.

“Cocoa sounds ‘ood.”

“Okay, it’ll help your chest,” Dany told him. “But first, I have something for you.”

She set the long, thin box on the bed beside him. It was decorated with jack-o-lanterns and witches and spiders, all set for the big day she’d planned.

“I had a bunch of stuff planned, another first for Hallowenn, but since you’re sick, we’ll keep it simple.”

“Sorry.”

“It’s okay, just open it.”

Dany perched on the edge of the bed, restraining herself from bouncing up and down. Jon plucked the lid off clumsily, sniffing and coughing. He gave the pregnancy test a confused look.

“Funny lookin’ wand? Are we going to Hogwarts?”

She rolled her eyes. “Look at it.”

He squinted for a long while, at the little directional card that explained the symbols, and then at the actual symbol on the test. She could almost seem the flu-riddled cogs in his mind grinding along.

“Dany, you’re—I’m gonna be a daddy?”

She nodded as her grin spread over her face. Jon let out a pleased shout—then succumbed to a wave of hacking and coughing. He dropped back into the pillows as the jingle of a cat collar scurried into the room. Viserion meowed softly as he leapt onto the bed, still in his Toy Story alien costume.

“You’re a sight,” Jon muttered. Then he smiled at her. “Really?”

“Yeah, I’ve taken three tests and they’re all positive.” Dany squeezed his hand when he reached for hers. “I’ve got an appointment next week with my OB/GYN.”

“Wow.” Jon seemed mesmerized by her words, not a trace of worry in his voice or expression. They’d meant to wait longer, but her birthday had been a wild night back in July. Too much drinking and a lack of condoms and here they were. “Gods, I can’t wait. When? I’ll go with you. I want to be there.”

“Tuesday, after work.”

He beamed even as he sneezed again.

“Back under the blankets, you. I’ll get the soup and hot cocoa,” Dany told him, as he cradled the pregnancy test in his hands like a fragile doll. “Then a horror movie night?”

“Aye.”

She headed for the hall, then paused in the doorway. “And Jon? Pregnant people aren’t allowed to clean the cat box, so that’s all on you.”

Jon groaned, but nodded. “Worth it.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Only one part left--but it's not written out yet, haha. Probably another week or so before I post it. Should be before Christmas/New Year's.
> 
> Next fic update will be The Dragons' Song, for those who also read that! :)


	7. Seventh Halloween

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A final Halloween is upon us! And just in time for the winter holidays lmao
> 
> Enjoy!

“That’s it, there we go, face the camera! Oh, Aemon, no!”

Dany lunged forward and grabbed the Snickers from his tiny fist before their precious boy could shove it into his mouth, wrapper and all. Aemon had done little else of late. He chewed his fingers and toes, every toy or object within reach. All the cats had begun to avoid him, for he liked to chew and drool all over their ears and tails. Only Ghost came near. Right now, he was resting behind Aemon, serving both as a cute addition to her planned photo and as a makeshift baby gate to keep their new crawler in place.

“Ok, now—”

Aemon let out an offended shriek as soon as the Snickers was no longer in his chubby fist. He stared at her with those big violet eyes and began to cry.

Dany set her camera down. “Sweetie, I know you like the wrapper’s sound, but you’re too little to have chocolate. You can’t chew on the candies, okay? They’re part of the atmosphere and…”

His face began to redden, even as Ghost gave him several sweet kisses on his cheeks. She sighed and tried to distract him with one of the dozen objects she had beside her. Cloudy the Sheep was chucked across the room. His favorite Elmo doll followed, along with the big red teddy bear he always snuggled with at night. Finally, the teething ring won out. 

“There we go, that’s my sweet, beautiful boy.” Dany brushed his tears away as they played, then slowly moved back into position to get a picture of their son’s first Halloween costume. “That’s it. Smile big for Papa, Aemon!”

He blinked over at her, looking all about the room hopefully at the mention of Jon. Dany managed just the one photo before he began to wail again, a comical look of betrayal crossing his face at his father’s absence. Aemon was still crying a quarter of an hour later when Jon came through the door.

“Aw, what’s wrong with Papa’s baby boy?”

Jon smiled as Aemon reached his arms for him, still crying and tearful. As soon as Jon had his little face tucked against his shoulder, Aemon quieted. He popped his thumb into his mouth and shut his eyes.

“I see someone’s having a temperamental day,” Jon said. He gave her a kiss. “Mom said he was a fight most of the morning.”

“Yes,” Dany agreed. She’d picked Aemon up after her opening shift at the animal hospital, and had a time of it ever since. “He simply refused to nap for her. I haven’t gotten him to sleep either, but…”

She gestured at Aemon, sleeping peacefully against Jon’s chest.

“You’ve spoiled him,” Dany told him, but she was smiling at the sweet image all the same. “Ever since he had that ear infection last month, and you rocked him every night until he fell asleep, he’s been a nightmare for his naps.”

“Nah, he’s just a Papa’s boy, hmm?” Jon kissed Aemon’s costumed head and carried him over to his gated off play area. Rhaegal meowed hopefully from the pile of stuffed animals in the corner. “Yeah, he’s sleepy and safe for cuddles, you goon.”

Their brown tabby yawned and stretched, then leapt lightly over to Aemon’s bassinet and curled up on his chest. They were quite a sight, Aemon in his Charmander costume, Rhaegal in his Butterfree one. She and Jon had hand-made both like they did every year.

“Quick, there’s a picture to send out.”

Dany snapped a few shots of the pair, then joined her husband on the couch for a nap of their own. They woke just before dusk to Aemon’s babbling giggles. Ghost had knocked the play area fence over and was giving Aemon the biggest and wettest of kisses. Jon groaned and checked his watch.

“Fuck, we’re going to be late getting outside for the kids.”

They untangled themselves from each other scrambling around the room for all their bowls of candy, Aemon’s tiny light-up sneakers, and his little dinosaur coat just in case the unseasonable warmth turned chilly. 

“Here, you get changed and I’ll man the door, then switch, okay?”

Dany kissed him gratefully and headed upstairs. Their costumes had been taking up an entire closet in one of the guest rooms, all bulky black and orange fabric, including flaming tails and meticulously crafted heads. She suited up in her black and red Charizard, the shiny variant of the fabled Pokémon. Getting back downstairs was difficult, but Dany made it just as the first chime of the doorbell rang. 

“Jon, you said you’d be outside,” she called toward the kitchen. Dany answered the door to an impressive group of young princesses and a very eager llama. 

“Trick or treat!”

All the little ones pointed and beamed and called out Charizard as she gave them candy. Once they were gone, back down the jack-o-lantern lined path, Dany headed into the living room. She found Jon on the floor with their little half-dressed Charmander, changing a very stinky diaper.

“Watch your tail, he’s got that ‘I’m gonna pee while I’m free’ look in his eyes.”

Dany scooped it up and away just in time. Aemon giggled and squealed as Jon shielded himself from the steady stream.

“You’re a naughty boy,” Dany scolded their son, but he only laughed harder as Jon cleaned up the extra mess. “You’re making Papa late for the other kids.”

“That’s okay, huh, Aemon? Papa loves you too much to not be late for you.”

Jon rediapered Aemon at lightning speed, tucking his wiggly legs back into his onesie costume. Dany took him into her arms and zipped him up. He was all smiles now, babbling happily as Dany found his Cloudy the Sheep and dug a new frozen teething ring from the freezer. They headed out to the front porch just as another group hurried up the pathway.

“Trick or treat!”

Aemon was a big hit, especially once Jon joined them in his own Charizard costume with Ghost as a flaming Ponyta at his side. Together, the pair led the newcomers through the haunted house they’d constructed in the old greenhouse. Jon had gotten several of his old high school friends and his cousins to play the scarers inside. Ghost, however, was too protective to let any real scares happen. He woofed and stopped and dragged both Arya and Robb from the shadows until all the kids left the house with bright smiles and big laughs.

“Your dog’s spoiling all the fun,” Robb muttered as he came over to sit with her and Aemon. “What’s the point of a haunted house if it’s not scary?”

“We wanted it to be fun, not terrifying,” Dany reminded him. Aemon reached for his uncle’s drooping fake eyeball. “Here, hold him for a moment.”

Robb took the baby without question, grinning as Aemon squealed and kicked and bounced.

“You get bigger every time Uncle Robb comes over to see you, do you know that?”

Aemon squealed in agreement, then dropped his teething ring as he began to reach for the next group heading up the path.

“Goo! Ga-goo!”

A gigantic wolf lumbered towards them, almost Ghost’s exact likeness if not for the obvious signs of a person underneath. Dany caught sight of Mr. Lannister at the wolf’s side, entirely overshadowed by his creative nephew.

“Flesh or feast,” Tommen rasped in his best werewolf voice.

She beamed as she caught sight of him just inside the wolf’s mouth.

“Oh, my, what are we going to do about this frightening werewolf, Aemon?”

He only babbled and continued to grab for the wolf, endlessly chanting, “Goo, goo!”

Robb gave his nephew a funny look. “You know, I think he might be trying to say Ghost.”

“He’s really cute,” Tommen’s voice called from inside his costume, then he gasped. “I mean, uh,  _ he’s perfect to eat _ .”

Tyrion rolled his eyes and patted the big wolf’s head. “As you can see, my werewolf is still in training.”

“I am not!”

Jon returned then with their latest group, glancing her way, then doing a double take at the sight of Tommen’s gigantic wolf. Ghost woofed, fiery, light up tail wagging as he came over to inspect his likeness. He gave the costume a few curious sniffs, then shoved his shaggy head into the mouth hole and licked Tommen’s face. Tommen laughed and toppled over, Ghost following with his kisses.

“Ghost, stop.”

Their panda-sized dog ignored her. Tyrion gave the pair an exasperated head shake and came over to meet little Aemon.

“I see someone takes after his father,” Tyrion said, as Aemon yawned, big eyes still transfixed by Tommen’s costume. “How old is he now?”

“Six months as of last week,” Jon said proudly. He lifted their son into his arms and rubbed his belly. “Aemon’s a handful, but he’s everything we could have wanted.”

Dany nodded in agreement. “Before you know it, he’ll be old enough for you to teach.”

“Perhaps.” Tyrion shook Aemon’s tiny hand and smiled. “I may retire before then. I’ve taught quite enough Starks to last me the rest of my life, and a Stark-Targaryen sounds a right terror.”

“Even if he’s a tiny Charmander?”

Aemon blinked up at them with his big sleepy eyes and yawned again. Even Tyrion seemed tempted, but he shook his head firmly.

“They’re always cute when they can’t wipe their own ass,” he said. “By the time I get them, they’re zit-covered nightmares. Come on, were-nephew. Let’s see what this haunted house is all about.”

Jon took the open seat beside her as Ghost led Tyrion and Tommen into the old greenhouse. Aemon continued to stare after them, long after they had disappeared inside.

“Was that a big Ghostie, Aemon? Did you like that?”

“Goo!”

Dany smiled and kissed his plump cheeks. “Yes, he did look like Ghost, didn’t he?”

“Goo goo goo!”

He babbled from Jon’s lap for the rest of the night, finally dozing off as their Halloween visitors began to fizzle out. Lyanna arrived just as Jon was making his rounds to turn everything off and Dany was snuffing out all the candles in the pumpkins.

“How was my favorite grandson’s first Halloween? Oh, look at  _ you _ !”

Lyanna scooped him up, still half asleep in his Charmander costume. She cooed and kissed him as they headed inside.

“I hope you got a few pictures of him in this,” she said. “A week from now it’ll be too small.”

“I’ll send you everything I took,” Dany told her. “He was still fussy after I picked him up, but Jon—”

“Is spoiling you rotten, isn’t he, Aemon? Your Papa’s a bad boy.”

“I am not, Aemon. You don’t listen to Nana, okay? She likes to tell tales about your old man.”

He ducked into the kitchen to warm up a bottle of breastmilk, then passed it to Lyanna when she refused to hand him over. Aemon kicked his little feet as he ate, as sweet as could be. Dany peeled her costume off down to her undergarments right there in the living room and wrapped herself up in a thick blanket. Jon did the same, settling in beside her and yawning.

“You two work too much,” Lyanna said as she rocked Aemon’s steady eating. “When was the last time you two slept a full night?”

“Uhh…”

“I mean, we…”

Dany glanced up at her husband, unable to answer with any exact date or time frame. They had too much to do to keep track of something like that.

“And the last time you fucked like the horny teenagers I used to walk in on?”

Jon rolled his eyes. “You never walked in on us, Mom.”

“Not that I let you know about.”

That sober up Jon’s amusement all at once. “You didn’t—we would have— _ I told you to stay out of my room! _ ”

“Yes, you did, and  _ I _ did. But I seem to recall a number of times were you two didn’t make it that far into the house.”

Lyanna grinned at him, and Dany started laughing at Jon’s crestfallen look.

“But we—the door was— _ stop laughing! _ ”

Dany only chuckled harder, until she was gasping and crying at the wounded expression on her husband’s face. Jon had never looked so cross.

“But you didn’t see—I mean, you couldn’t see my… or Dany’s…”

Lyanna snorted as Aemon finished his bottle. “As if the sounds you two made weren’t warning enough to cover my eyes before I opened the door.”

“Oh my gods.”

“At least you two never walked in on me and—” Lyanna blanched and gave them a wide-eyed look. “Well, that’s in the past now, isn’t it?”

“You and who?” Jon demanded. “You didn’t have anyone that you ever mentioned to me when—”

“Hush, it doesn’t matter.”

But Jon continued to badger her, naming every person she’d ever brought home, or kissed in front of him, or even flirted with once Jon had been old enough to notice such things.

“Fine,  _ fine, _ but you asked for this.” Lyanna took a deep breath and gave Dany an apologetic look before turning back to Jon. “Rhaegar and I had a  _ thing _ . Not dating, just—”

“You  _ fucked _ my brother-in-law?  _ Mom! _ ”

“He wasn’t your brother-in-law then, Jonathan Stark.” Lyanna beamed him in the face with Aemon’s empty bottle. “We were both just a bit lonely. Nothing ever came from it.”

Jon’s face remained the same. He looked for all the world as if he wished he’d never learned how to ask a question. For her part, Dany was strangely glad to hear it. She’d suspected at once point in those early months. More than once she’d spotted Lyanna’s car driving away from Dragonstone as she was walking home from school. But Rhaegar hadn’t mentioned it, so neither had Dany.

“Oh, Jon, get over it. So my brother and your mother were fuck buddies. And she walked in on us who knows how many times—”

Jon’s pout was both wounded and alarmed. “She didn’t—”

Dany hit him in the face with a couch pillow. “Better her than Aemon. I don’t know that I could ever look him in the face if he walked in on us.”

“That’s hard to do, though, right, Aemmie? You can’t walk in on Mama and Papa fucking if they haven’t in—”

“We… have.” Jon gave Dany a pleading look to back him up. “We’re just… very… busy. With Aemon and our shifts at the vet hospital and renovating the guest house to open our own clinic and—”

“Excuses, excuses,” Lyanna scolded. She stood to burp Aemon and scanned the room. “What’s he need for the night?”

“For the—”

Dany blocked Lyanna from heading to the play area. “We’re  _ fine _ , Lyanna. Really. Aemon can’t—”

“He’s six months now,” she reminded them. “I think he’s old enough for his first sleepover at Nana’s. Jon and Robb had one every weekend by his age.”

“But—”

Dany couldn’t bare the thought, no matter how much sleep and sex they might have without Aemon there for one night. He was their precious baby. The center of their world and far too young to leave them.

“I’m just down the road,” Lyanna said gently. She tucked a strand of hair behind Dany’s ear. “We’ll just sleep and cuddle and have a good fun bath in the morning before I bring him back. If you’re okay with it.”

She was and wasn’t. Jon gave her a similarly conflicted look and pulled her aside.

“I can’t bare the thought either, but…” Jon shrugged and glanced at the ceiling. “When’s the last time we had dinner just us? Or a bubble bath? And…”

He raised a suggestive eyebrow until Dany was laughing at him. “When’s the last time we fucked?”

No definitive answer came to mind. They’d certainly caught a few moments in the last half year, but she couldn’t think of more than a handful of instances. Each one was rushed and clumsy and far too distant in her memory. Dany glanced over at Aemon sleeping in Lyanna’s arms and gave in. She handed off Aemon’s go-bag and Cloudy the Sheep and then Jon insisted Ghost go with them since Aemon might be scared to wake up without them, but Ghost wouldn’t let him be afraid.

“Anything else?” Lyanna asked as she wrapped Aemon up in a blanket for the chilly trip out to her car. “Should I take his entire crib as well? And the cats?”

“Go,” Jon muttered. “Before we change our minds.”

They both gave Aemon’s Charmander head a kiss, then watched him get strapped into his carseat in his nana’s car. Dany lingered at the door long after they drove away.

“Come on, love. Let’s go act like the young married couple we are.”

Shutting the door wasn’t easy. Every few minutes one of them glanced at the silent baby monitor or shushed one another to listen for any noises of distress. Everything was quiet. Even Drogon and Viserion weren’t yowling as they raced around the house. They ate a simple dinner, then decided on a big bubble bath. Dany sank into the suds with a relieved sigh, but Jon jerked around before he had one leg in.

“Did you hear—”

“Aemon’s with your mom, Jon.” She reached for his hand and tugged him into the bubbles behind her. “Let’s just try to relax.”

It was easier in the tub, but even their hot bubble bath wasn’t enough to fully distract them. Jon washed her hair and kissed her shoulder, but Dany could tell he was far away.

“I miss him, too.”

Normally, it was Aemon’s bath time right now. He sat and splashed and made a right mess as he floated his little boats on the surface and shrieked in protest when it came time to wash his wispy curls.

“We’ll see him bright and early,” Jon said with certainty. “I’ve still got a key. We can go pick him up as soon as the sun rises.”

Dany sighed. “Okay. All right, no more moping. Our baby is bonding with Nana tonight, and  _ we _ should be taking this time to bond with each other.”

“Right. We should.” Jon cleared his throat and gazed around the bathroom. Every inch of it was littered with some reminder of Aemon. Bath toys, his tiny alligator towel, baby shampoo and soap. “Um, how was work?”

“Jon, we saw each other there just this morning.”

“Oh, yeah.”

He didn’t seem to have any idea of what else to ask. Every conversation anymore was work or Aemon or menial things like groceries and daily tasks.

“Come on, you. Let’s have a horror movie night.”

That seemed to sparkle some life into the Jon before parenthood. He grinned and helped her dry off, then refused to let her put her pajamas on.

“We’re already tired,” he reasoned. “Let’s not make sex  _ harder _ .”

“Hmm,” Dany considered his damp curls and limp cock. “We won’t have much sex at all if  _ you _ aren’t harder.”

Then she flicked his dick and ran into the adjacent bedroom. Jon laughed in disbelief and followed. He grabbed her just before she could dive onto the bed, hoisting her up and dumping her unceremoniously onto the mess of pillows and blankets.

“That was very rude, Daenerys Stark-Targaryen. What if you injured me permanently and we can never give Aemon the little sibling he’s bond to ask us for one day?”

Dany giggled as he tickled her ribs. “I’m hearing a lot of presumptions in your words, Jon Stark-Targaryen.”

“You’re the one who said you wanted lots of babies,” he reminded her. Jon nuzzled her neck, then blew a wet raspberry on her collarbone. “Do you think that fake doll murderer movie is still on Netflix?”

“Maybe. It’s been, like, a year since we saved it for later.” 

Jon rested his cheek against her chest, sighing happily as she scratched at his damp hair. They lay like that for a long while, just touching and talking and trying to remember all the things that used to have time for prior to Aemon’s birth.

“You know, if we make Nana sleepovers a weekly—”

“Bi-weekly,” Dany corrected.

“Right, bi-weekly thing, we could have a whole day just for us again. Romantic dinners, binge marathons, sex in all the random places we used to end up. We could even play soccer at the park again.”

It  _ did _ sound nice. Taking back just a few hours of time for themselves, to be young adults exploring the world and having fun. To not be the settled married couple they’d become, and yet…

“It is wrong to want that  _ and _ to feel terribly guilty about it?”

Jon’s smile was so big she felt it against her skin. “No, I’m the same. Gods, are we really just settled? At 22?”

Dany pouted as he sat up to look at her. “Would you hate it if we were?”

“Nah, I can’t hate anything that I share with you. Unless, it’s my toothbrush. You have  _ horrible _ mouth funk in the morn—”

She slammed him in the face with another pillow, laughing as he rolled away grumbling.

“Come on, lover boy. Let’s see what Netflix has to offer for horror movies and see where the night takes us. Sound good?”

“Sounds perfect.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So that is that, that is all Zane wrote.
> 
> Next up for fics will be a Secret Santa thing I am working on for the Jonerys Secret Santa madness. Should be cute and fun and modern. And then Embers obviously. Will I finish that one by year's end as well? Nope, but I might manage a chapter or two before 2020.
> 
> Thanks for reading! :D

**Author's Note:**

> Next part soon! :)


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